The Handmade Bronze Replit Pin
Tags: Metalwork, Replit, Craft, Commission
In March 2026 I was commissioned to hand-make a set of bronze Replit lapel pins for Michele Catasta, Replit’s Head of AI, working from a single small image of the redesigned logo before it was public. No vector file, no measurements, no fabrication drawing. Every pin was cut, filed, and brushed by hand at roughly three-quarters of an inch square, and it has been travelling the conference circuit on his lapel ever since.
Every once in a while, my feed throws something back at me that makes me stop and go, _Oh, right. I made that little heirloom._ One of the coolest examples is a set of custom bronze lapel pins I was commissioned to make for Michele Catasta, Replit’s Head of AI. The whole project took about a week. It was not the most technically difficult thing I have ever fabricated, but it required a ridiculous amount of attention to detail. Which, naturally, meant I stressed over every tiny measurement, radius, edge, and surface mark like the fate of the company depended on it. The brief was one image file This was back in March 2026, before Replit publicly unveiled its redesigned logo. So, shout-out to the teammate who originally commissioned the project and trusted me to quietly make it happen. I had to keep the entire thing under wraps, and the only reference material I received was a small JPEG or PNG of the new logo. That was it. No vector file. No measurements. No fabrication drawing. No recommended dimensions. Just a flat, two-dimensional outline and the general instruction to turn it into a physical lapel pin. How big should a lapel pin actually be? From there, I had to reverse-engineer the proportions and figure out what dimensions would actually work when translated into metal. Something can look perfectly fine on a screen and still become awkward, fragile, or visually muddy when reduced to the size of a pin. I eventually settled on a footprint of roughly three-quarters of an inch square. Small enough to sit naturally on a lapel without looking like a sheriff’s badge, but large enough for the shape of the logo to remain distinct. Before landing on the final version, I worked through several different sizes and shapes to dial everything in. The progress photos show the iterations lined up next to one another, gradually getting cleaner and more balanced as I refined the design. Every one was cut and shaped by hand The broad outer profile was straightforward enough. The annoying part was getting all of the small node connections and internal radii to match. Those little curves needed to look intentional and consistent, especially because any difference between them becomes incredibly obvious once the piece is reduced to that scale. There was no hiding behind software smoothing or a clean render. The physical object was either symmetrical or it was not. The radius was either right or it looked wrong. So I spent a lot of time with needle files, checking the shape, taking off a tiny amount of material, checking it again, and repeating the process until everything finally lined up. The brushed finish Once the form was right, I moved on to the surface finish. The final face was hand-sanded very precisely in a single direction to create the brushed finish. That part sounds simple, but it is extremely easy to ruin a consistent grain pattern by changing pressure, drifting sideways, or letting one pass overlap at the wrong angle. So, yes, I obsessed over that too. The result was a clean, understated bronze Replit logo that still visibly looked and felt handmade. It had the precision of a branded object without losing the character of something fabricated individually rather than stamped out by the thousand. Then it kept showing up What has been especially rewarding is that the pin did not disappear after one convention. It was not just a quick, one-off accessory for a keynote or a single company event. Over time, I started noticing Michele wearing it at major conferences, interviews, public appearances, and keynotes. Then I would see it again somewhere else. And again. At this point, that little piece of bronze has probably traveled farther around the world than I have. There is something deeply satisfying about randomly encountering an object you made months later, completely outside of the original context. I will be scrolling through my feed, see Michele speaking onstage somewhere, and there it is, still sitting on his lapel. It is a quiet reminder that something I made with a handful of files, sandpaper, and far too much concentration became an object someone genuinely valued enough to keep wearing. Most of what I have been forging lately has been in code, AI systems, applications, and other digital projects. I have not spent nearly as much time blacksmithing or doing small-scale metal fabrication as I used to. But that side of me is still very much there. And apparently it enjoys occasionally sending small bronze artifacts around the globe. The photos here show the full progression, from the rough blanks and hand-filed iterations to the final brushed finish, backing hardware, and presentation box. And then the real payoff, out in the world where it belongs. That is a pretty damn gratifying ending for something that started with one tiny image file, no dimensions, and the vague idea that I could probably figure it out. So thanks to Francisco for thinking of me when an interesting idea needed to be turned into an object, and to Michele for appreciating it enough to wear it all across the globe. 😸
Frequently Asked Questions
- Who made Michele Catasta’s bronze Replit lapel pin?
- Ken Goyarola of KayGeeArtworks hand-fabricated the bronze Replit lapel pins in March 2026, on commission, before the redesigned Replit logo was made public.
- What size should a custom lapel pin be?
- Roughly three-quarters of an inch is a good target for a logo pin. It sits naturally on a lapel without looking like a badge, while staying large enough for the shape of the mark to read clearly.
- Can you make a pin from just a logo image with no vector file?
- Yes, but the proportions have to be reverse-engineered by hand. A flat screen logo often becomes awkward, fragile, or visually muddy at pin scale, so the dimensions and internal radii need reworking before anything is cut.
- Does Ken Goyarola take custom fabrication commissions?
- Yes. Alongside software and AI work, KayGeeArtworks takes on small-scale metal fabrication and handmade object commissions. Reach out through the contact details on the about page.
Back to all writing