DaveInNZ
(CAVEAT: Below are my personal opinions. They aren't intended to be taken as gospel, but are intended to generate conversation and varying perspectives)
I have wanted to do a badge post discussing the many badges from over the decades, but that would be laborious to find them all and not forget any. And I am highly opinionated about badges (and most anything else that crosses my mind) to the point of it affecting my interest in a particular product or era of products. For example; the square black badges of the Centennial are among my least favorite badges to date. An equally "unfavorite" is one of the ones mentioned below.
I have decided to focus specifically on the Artist snares for now, since they represent two badge designs that span(ned) most Sonor lines at that time and the original was a quite unique badge, specific to the Artist Series.
This is the first incarnation:
It was a departure from the other badges going on at the time. Nice contrasting colors within the badge itself.
This was the second incarnation:
To me, it was generic and uninspired. Printing on bare metal, ala the rectangular Phonic badges (et al), but at least this did have a rubber insulator.
And the 3rd and current version:
This the across-the-board badge style for most Sonor lines at this time. SQ2, and Vintage series being exceptions.
My personal opinion about these in a nutshell:
The original Artist Badge was a series specific badge that broke from tradition and added uniqueness to a unique line of Sonor drums.
The second version was a quite generic badge in contrast to the others. It spanned all or most of the Sonor product lines excluding Designers and closely matched the size of DW's long running round badges.
The current version saw a return to rectangular badges with a much larger mallet logo more easily identifiable from a further distance. The badge being black with silver print adds a level of class that I feel lacked on the bare metal round badges. The black badge also lends itself well to any color shell.
For comparison, here is an Artist drum with a round badge that didn't really go with the rest of what was going on with the drum.
Feel free to share your opinions.