Huntington Woods Celebrates 100 Years

When a small public safety department wants a commemorative anniversary badge, developing a completely custom design isn't always the best solution. Huntington Woods Public Safety found that by customizing an existing badge style, they could create a distinctive centennial badge without the cost or timeline of a full custom development project.

The City of Huntington Woods is celebrating its centennial in 2026. Huntington Woods Public Safety Department is a small agency with 20 personnel.  

To commemorate this milestone, the Public Safety Department wanted to create a commemorative badge that would honor its history with a meaningful keepsake for officers.  They wanted a unique badge that could be ordered easily, without spending a lot of time or money on the project.

Finding a Style for the Anniversary Badge

For their regular service badges, Huntington Woods currently wears an eagle-top badge that is popular in Michigan featuring the Michigan Tuebor design: 

For the anniversary, the team wanted a design that features some elements of their existing badge like the State of Michigan seal, but also included modern decorative elements like flags.  In addition, they wanted space to include the anniversary (100 Years) and the years 1926-2026.  Like many agencies today, Huntington Woods used AI to explore design ideas and communicate the look they had in mind.  While the concept captured the desired style, bringing it to life exactly as illustrated would have required a completely custom badge development project. Instead, we used the artwork as inspiration to identify an existing badge style that delivered many of the same design elements while dramatically reducing cost and lead time.

Rather than asking the department to compromise, we looked for an existing badge that naturally incorporated the most important design elements:

  • American flags
  • A large center seal
  • Room for anniversary lettering
  • Space for rank and badge number

Model S702 met those requirements while avoiding the cost and timeline of developing a completely original badge.

With only about 20 personnel, Huntington Woods didn't need hundreds of badges. Choosing a customizable badge style allowed the department to create a memorable anniversary badge without spreading the cost of custom tooling across a small order.

Why This Approach Worked

  • Inspired by the department's own design concept
  • No development fees
  • No minimum order
  • Professional appearance
  • Fast delivery
  • Department-specific identity

Project Snapshot

Organization Huntington Woods Public Safety
Project Type Anniversary Badge
Quantity 18 Badges
Approach Customized existing badge
Badge Model S702
Timeline 4-6 weeks
Funding Source Municipal Budget

 

Considering an anniversary badge for your department?

Anniversary badges don't always require a completely original design. For many departments, customizing an existing badge style provides the ideal balance of appearance, budget, and turnaround time.  The key is choosing the level of badge customization that best fits your organization's goals.