Pin-back button

As Button (English for button) round Ansteckplaketten sheet metal or plastic are usually referred to, which can be secured with a safety or curved needle to clothing. Other fastening variants of Ansteckbuttons include crocodile clip and magnet. Fancier versions have on the back of an ear plug, mirror or bottle opener.

Buttons are used in many ways and brought in various ways to the user - for example, distributed at demonstrations or sold to pop concerts. The design is limited only by the shape and size limits. The dimensions are based mainly on the Imperial measurement system, most designs have a diameter of 1 inch ( about 2.5 cm). However, there are much more buttons.

Production

Buttons can be machined in large editions, but also in small numbers on simple hand tools. Four circular parts - a front part made ​​of metal, the design (mostly on paper), a transparent protective film and the metal back plate with the needle - are stacked and pressed together.

Hand presses are popular with children's parties and youth groups. Designs can even be painted and drawn. Round cut or punched they are individually pressed as a button.

Topics

The range of content is endless: image symbols, short political statements, portraits of rock stars and footballers, aphorisms and pure nonsense. If buttons, as usual, be worn open at the clothes, they act as a medium, they convey the views, likes, dislikes of the wearer to the public. This requires, however, the receiver of the message a certain agreement in the personal repertoire of the characters advance.

A well-known example of such an opinion button is the red sun with the text " Nuclear power? No thank you. " The design was developed in 1975 by the citizens' initiative OOA in Aarhus, Denmark and has since spread, with an estimated total of 20 to 30 million in more than 40 languages.