As a young boy and last of a series of children, it was quite common to wear hand me downs from my older siblings. A flashy fashion time of primary colored short-shorts, my home economist mother sewed play clothes that could be warn by all brothers or sisters over time, so larger investment could be spent on non-handy-me-over items such as shoes. One of my largest complaints about being the last to get stuff was the shorts never had pockets. Therefore, the invention of the B, C, D pocket came about, wherein my mother would make a colorful pocket for each child and put our name letter on it. These pockets would then be safety pinned inside or outside the shorts. Back then, we were actually thought of as cooler because of this oddity.
Perhaps this is the reason, I am a middle-age man who attends business networking events 98% of the time wearing a pre-made name badge. While not from an arrogant love of my own name, but for anyone with a unique company logo it is a subtle opportunity to promote businesses and stand apart from competitors. Not crazy about pinning or sticking my clothes, my $2 badge carrier from Wally World keeps the name badge from walking around and ending up in precarious places. With natural graphic designer abhorition for the cheap “Hello, My Name is” generics purchased by unimaginative event planners, the primary reason to bring your own name badge offers two functions for those viewing–legible name and company promotion.
Offering attention to detail via advance printed name-badges mean people do not need to squint and struggle to read other people’s hand-written ones when someone focused on developing enjoyable and genuine business conversations with other event attendees forgets the name that they have only just been instructed. Something I’ve noticed since I started doing this is that people are much more likely to remember my name throughout the event. An important point at a networking function.
Event planners should visit Wally World to buy a package of $5 name badge or shipping labels at half the cost of the office supply store to pre-print labels with their office ink jets. The 1st crucial clue for a good name badge is to create a design with the organization name on the label. Obviously, that name should be at the top in the header position or bottom in the footer position of the badge, creating mini PR for the group, when people leave the event forgetting to remove the badge. 
The 2nd and more crucial design element is to print the person’s first name in a large print consuming the span of the name badge. People need to be able to quickly and respectfully glance at a badge, so it will not be evident to the person they need assistance and it the cases of guy and gal conversations there’s no chance the glance can be misconstrued. A person’s first name name should be printed in 36 pt font to fit across the badge or a little smaller if they have many letters. The last name can be printed smaller letters under the first name or not at all cause it can be swapped on business card exchange. Here’s an example:
