If you have ever participated in an event, you probably received customized ribbons for whatever you did in the event. For example, most people know that a blue ribbon usually means first place at the fair, and that red ribbons mean second. However, that is not always the case. Sometimes a blue or red ribbon is just a participation ribbon. Sometimes the participation ribbon is yellow or white. So, how can you distinguish winning an event from participation? Here are a few ways to customize ribbons to tell them apart.
Round Sunburst Attachments
At the fair, giant purple ribbons with big, flowery sunburst heads scream out, "Best of the Fair!" Sometimes these ribbons are blue, with a really basic blue ribbon used as the participation ribbon and the big, flowery ribbon used for first place. Regardless of what "place" you use them for, the round sunburst attachments at the top of any basic ribbon mark them as more important or more significant than all of the other ribbons awarded.
Badge Ribbons
Instead of a full-on ribbon, you could use badge ribbons. This is similar to the round sunburst attachments listed above, except that there are no ribbons hanging down from the sunburst. These are essentially a modified pin badge, commonly worn and used by campaign volunteers, but they can be customized for other events.
Gold, Silver, and Bronze Ribbons
Instead of the usual blue, red, and white or yellow ribbons for first, second, and third place, how about gold, silver, and bronze ribbons? You can still imprint these ribbons with the name and date of your event, but then it becomes much more clear as to who won which place. There is virtually no way to confuse place winnings when your ribbons are gold, silver and bronze, since this is exactly how the Olympics does it for their champions.
Ribbons WITH Medals
Speaking of Olympics, you could also use ribbon lariats with medals attached. This also clears up any confusion as to who won and which place they took. The ribbon lariats can be any color, too. If you wanted to, you could pair gold medals with blue lariat ribbons, silver medals with red lariat ribbons, etc. They would look very sharp that way. As for your participation custom ribbons, you could customize a lariat of different colors and imprint them with the name and date of your event. That would clearly distinguish the participation ribbon from your ribbon/medals.
