Approximately a month ago a friend of mine, who
is in the US Air Force, contacted me and asked if I could design a patch for
his squadron. A few things he requested for the design was to include a grim
reaper, a B-52 Stratofortress and a few other details. Almost immediately the idea for this design
below came to mind. I wanted to create something
you might see on a heavy metal album cover. This patch went through a number of changes before
I achieved the final design. Initially I
had bombs dropping from the plane but decided that visually it was too busy,
and the lightning enhances the impression of a heavy metal motif. A few constraints I had were the final size of
the physical patch, 4” round, and the level of detail the stitching machines can
achieve. Overall I am satisfied with how
my first commission turned out.
Update: Well, it turns out my friend’s squadron
never had the patches produced. However it’s not all bad news. My friend went
to a store on the base and had them produce a single patch. The patch you see
below is made by hand. The colors are different from the original design because
the shop had limited color options. Honestly, I think it turned out really good
all things considered.
