How do you create site badges, or get them approved?

Hey guys,

I'm wanting to know how one can get badges created, or approved, that appear via this site. By badges, I'm talking about those little square things that sometimes appear beneath people's names. At least I think that's what they're called.

Since April this year (that is, 5 months), the community has participated in a collaborative map-making event, with 28 unique users contributing maps, and soon to be 100 maps being created. It's quite a cool thing, it's 18 pages long, it's almost done, the link is in my signature, which you have probably seen if you've read any of my posts.

I want to award 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes to the top performers in the event, as judged by an external panel of 3 judges.

I read somewhere on this site that all you need to do is have a good enough cause, and draw a bitmap that represents your badge that is of enough quality, in order to create a badge. Correct me if I'm wrong. But I'd like to know the actual process that goes on.

Cheers and TYVM,

C-c-c-cashmere