Behind the badges - creating 45 designs to capture netball culture

Vicki O
Jan 16
2 min read

If you spend any time around netball, you quickly learn that positions are never just positions.

There is always a conversation about what each role represents. Not just on the court, but in personality. The Goal Shooter who stays calm when everyone else is panicking. The Wing Defence who never stops moving. The Centre who somehow holds the whole thing together without asking for attention.

Those conversations stayed with me. I wanted to explore how the traits we associate with netball positions often reflect who people are, not just how they play.

That curiosity turned into drawing. I had a lot of fun exercising my illustration skills and creating characters that felt familiar and honest. The goal was not to make them polished or perfect. I wanted them to feel like the people we all recognise from our teams. A playful way to say, this is me, without needing to explain it.

As the designs grew, I started asking myself harder questions. Would people actually want to claim these traits? Would someone really put their hand up and say they are clumsy, or awkward, or a bit of a princess? Or would that honesty be exactly what made the badges work?

That tension became part of the process. Each badge needed to feel light-hearted but true. Something you could laugh at, while also feeling quietly seen.

Then came the practical challenge. Once I realised there were going to be forty five designs, I had to work out how to display them in a way that made sense. I wanted people to be able to browse easily, but still feel the personality behind each badge. That took just as much thought as the drawing itself.

These badges are fun, but they also serve a bigger purpose. Every purchase helps us move Here If Ya Need into its next stage of development. From casting to hiring crew, the badges directly support bringing the project to life.

They are small pieces of netball culture, created with a lot of love for the game and the people in it. A way to wear your court personality with pride, humour, and self-awareness.

And maybe a reminder that the traits we joke about are often the very things that make our teams work.