Starting from 2020, I have been part of teams (Badge.Team, individual teams, and Curious Supplies) who developed hardware and software for hacker events such as MCH2022, ECSC2022 and ECSC2020 organised by ENISA, HackerHotel2020 and more. Working out concepts and making the digital artworks and illustrations, the PCB layers & file preparation for manufacturing is all part of the processes for these projects.
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HackerHotel2023 BADGE DESIGN & STORYLINE
After being postponed twice due to the pandemic from 2021 to 2022, the next Hacker Hotel badge finally went live in 2023.
The concept and theme of the badge was rather complex: the story and hardware revolved around the retrocomputers designs of the '60, an ancient stone tablet fragment, artificial intelligence, spirits not to be woken and spirits to be freed. Our team developed a deep set of challenges, which are equally as intriguing as exciting to attempt to solve through.
For some of the challenges, we decided to do augmented reality again (just as at HH20 with some posters): I 3D modeled and then printed the missing piece of the tablet, painted and textured by hand. This later got displayed in the event venue as part of the puzzles.
There were a few new technical and manufacturing solutions we decided to go with: cracks on the PCB which were produced by the fabrication house, not post-processed in a sweatshop; an eerie responsive intelligence imprisoned into the software, and a mysterious hardware which communicates you via LEDs and your connected computer device. You can read a detailed technical article of this badge on Hackaday.
ECSC2022 BADGE DESIGN
The European Cyber Security Challenge is a key activity of the European Union Agency for Cyber Security (ENISA). It aims to support cyber security talent across Europe and harness their potential in public organisations, private companies and science and research.
The theme for this 2022's ECSC event held in Vienna, AU, revolved around rebuilding society in the middle of a world suffering under the loud toll of climate disasters. My concept for the badge's design shows a device made up of several modules, tied and patched together by cables, paracords, zipties, full of handwriting with eye-opening messages in a future that echoes a past which is the present that we, the readers, currently experience. The colour and material choice for the PCB is green and gold, as those are extremely common to be found as e-waste in landfills and at facilities where people try to scavenge components and metals from these items.
Photo credits: Curious Supplies & David Bohmann
MCH2022 BADGE, VISUAL CONCEPT & MERCHANDISE DESIGN
MCH2022 is a nonprofit outdoor hacker camp which took place in Zeewolde, the Netherlands, July 22th to 26th in 2022. The event is organized for and by volunteers from and around all facets of the worldwide hacker community. Knowledge sharing, technological advancement, experimentation, connecting with likeminded people and hacking are some of the core values of this event.
MCH2022 is the successor of a string of similar events happening every four years since 1989.
These are GHP, HEU, HIP, HAL, WTH, HAR, OHM and SHA.
My role in the event organisation was visual concept development alongside a team of volunteers, the PCB art for the iconic badge featuring the mascots of the Badge.Team, and designing the merchandise which was completely sold out prior (as pre-orders) and during the hackercamp week. Be sure to try out the design generator!
The concept of the colourful kaleidoscope theme of MCH2022 symbolises the endless possibilities and ideas that we can come up with, our many personalities and realities as humans. The butterfly on the illustrations is our Perception, a receptor: it accepts content (the white light beam), and processes that into all sorts of colours a prism can diffuse it into.
Read the Hackaday article featuring this project here.
ECSC2021 - BADGE DESIGN
The European Cyber Security Challenge is a key activity of the European Union Agency for Cyber Security (ENISA). It aims to support cyber security talent across Europe and harness their potential in public organisations, private companies and science and research.
The theme for 2021's ECSC event held in Prague, CZ, featured being part of a secret organisation which trained hackers to perform different missions and tasks, with teams racing against eachother. The badge was made to be ergonomic: using software, users could easily switch the orientation between left or right handed mode, not particularly changing anything regarding the physical layout of the design - as even the logo was made symmetrical.
Collaboration with Curious Supplies.
HackerHotel2020 - CONCEPT & BADGE DESIGN
HackerHotel is an annual event organised in The Netherlands. Each year's theme is different. Since I was involved with the development, the badge evolved into an "escape room" challenge, making it a more exciting, memorable experience. We work out interesting puzzles based on software (and sometimes hardware!) elements, some of which cannot be solved alone: participants must team up and interact with eachother in order to complete all challenges inside the device. The Egyptian theme allowed us quite a lot of freedom to work with: the badge represents a mysterious amulet which was handed out in bags at the entrance without any further directions. As there was an issue with the SAO connector, I designed a little "second life" ankh key PCB tablet which served as a fix for the badge, so people could easily add their favourite SAOs. tilde.industries (who is a team of my friends and myself) designed a special edition scarab to match the Bastet badge of HackerHotel2020.
Read the Hackaday article featuring this project here.
