Military Patch

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.