For someone that has 0 background in Quantum Computing, what would be a good book to start learning more about the topic?

Personally, I find Nielsen and Chuang (Mike and Ike as it's affectionately referred to in the field) to be a good reference, but not great for learning the topic the first time. It's also expensive. I think that Rieffel and Polak [0] is a little easier to follow, and surprisingly thorough for an introductory book. Note, there is no reason to buy a book though, as John Preskill has his notes online [1], which I often see cited in published manuscripts.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Computing-Introduction-Engine... (Here is a much shorter document by the same authors written explicitly for non experts: https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9809016)

[1] http://www.theory.caltech.edu/people/preskill/ph219/

Nielsen and Chuang

Seconded. This is the definitive guide.

I would love to use this to design my lab badges as well :)

What about http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/67746/combining-paths...?

This reminds me of the first robot bird http://ed.ted.com/on/xtyd4M5V that was built a few years ago. I would be interested in knowing how difficult it is to build a robot bat once you already know how to build a robot bird. Is there any specific challenge in emulating the way bats fly compared to birds?