This Girl Scout Gives Back

abbydora book design
Thanks to the Girl Scouts my youth was filled with memories of weekly troop meetings, camping overnights, and even a trip to Switzerland to visit a World Girl Scout Center. You could say, “I went all the way with the Girl Scouts”. I started as a First Grade Brownie and ended as a 12th Grade Senior Scout who earned her Gold Award (the Eagle Scout equivalent). The Girl Scouts are an amazing organization that offers girls hands-on opportunities to learn about leadership, teamwork, and expanding self-awareness. Sounds impressive, right?, but really when I was a Girl Scout, all of those skills were learned through truly fun activities. One of my favorites? Kicking a large coffee can around a field making homemade ice cream!

Knowing that I have a soft spot for the Girl Scouts in my heart I was utterly delighted to receive an email last Winter asking me to help create the new updated badge book for the Girl Scouts! I had come full circle and could give back to the organization that gave me so much. Needless to say, I jumped at this opportunity.

The scope of reworking The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting for all levels of Girls Scout was quite large, so the project was broken down into sections. I was part of the team working on the Senior Scouts badges. Today, these are girls who are in the early years of high school. Designing for this age group was even more fun with the addition of being able to reuse historical illustrations from previous badge books printed in the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. Having access to these assets was like being able to peak into the vaults at GS headquarters.
book layout

The new badge book has come a long way from my days of a plain text workbook. The redesigned layouts are colorful combinations of text, styled photographs, and illustrations. It was my goal to make the layouts visually inviting as well as be able to clearly convey information. Here are a few of my personal favorites.
abby book layout
abbydora graphic design
abby badge book design

With the start of the new school year means the start of another scouting year too. And this year each Girl Scout will be getting a copy of the newly designed badge book. I hope it inspires girls to try new things, see new places, and keep the Girls Scouts alive and well.