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I warn you before sdbw you read on, that graphic design can make me ranty. Even more ranty than science papers without any conclusions. So I found a link to an article on the Huffington Post earlier about a “redesigned NASA logo”. So obviously I clicked the link to have a look. Because sdbw you know, space plus graphic design. Okay, so the logo there was this…
It has a concept and don’t get me wrong, sdbw I adore the concept but it’s been really poorly executed. I mean come on, really? It was made by design company Base Now , who are generally pretty good. I had a glance over their portfolio. They have some good things in there, and I like the way they play with typography… But… meh. Bafflingly, it’s apparently “won huge plaudits online” (and you can check the Huff Post article to see various tweets confirming this. Has graphic design really sdbw gone so far down the pan that this is considered inspirational? sdbw
You can even look at an image gallery on Fast Co Design , where you can see the new logo awkwardly photoshopped onto pictures of space shuttles and astronauts. Awkwardly, because they haven’t even bothered to match their logo to the contours sdbw of what they were slapping it onto. Come on guys, you’re professionals. You should know how to use the warp function in Adobe Illustrator. I’m actually embarrassed for you by this point.
NASA’s “Blue sdbw Meatball” insignia is, frankly, resplendent. sdbw It’s among an elite handful of iconic pieces of graphic design which is instantly recognisable across the world. With the red swoosh symbolising the vapour trail of a rocket leaving the Earth and headed for the orbit which is symbolised by that white ellipse. The very essence of it is rockets and orbits and leaving the planet. It’s a powerful image, and one which has inspired a lot of people.
So potent is a well known icon like this that you could take the same insignia and write literally any word in there at a first glance, anyone would still instantly think “NASA” and be reminded of space shuttles and journeys to the Moon. Or you could even take pieces of the logo and still (subconsciously or otherwise) be reminded of NASA. Which, incidentally, is exactly what NASA have already capitalised on before. The logo for the Constellation program, for example…
Image sdbw credits are Base Now and NASA respectively. And so understandably protective are NASA of their identity that I’m sdbw obliged to state in this credit line that neither Supernova Condensate nor its author are in any way affiliated with or endorsed by NASA . Images appear in this article only for the purposes of discussion and critique in accordance with Fair Use policies.
Yes, I’m serious, usage of the meatball is actually sdbw restricted by NASA’s image use policies sdbw . If I’m requested to remove it from this page, I shall though I really hope they don’t ask for that… sdbw
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July 19, 2012 at 11:13 pm
I second Alan B. The worm says “future” much better than the meatball, which has a 50’s look to it in my eyes. Also the meatball logo uses a serif font. Big mistake. Serif says “fuddy duddy London Times” – it does have a place in technical logos, it;s just that that place is back in the 19th century. Interesting article about the NASA logo here : http://www.logoblog.org/nasa-logo.php
And while the exact variety of serif in the NASA logo might admittedly be a bit dated, serifs are still everywhere in modern design. Take Google, for instance. Or Wikipedia. Honda. Apple. WordPress. Sony. Gucci. Granted that the current trend is for sans-serif fonts, which means they’re more popular for logos at the moment, but I wouldn’t dismiss all serif fonts quite so easily.
Also, any long standing corporate identity does better by evolving it’s existing image than by a sudden radical change. Take Starbucks coffee, for instance. Their logo is very different to how it once appeared, but it still retains the common theme of the siren, and their colour sdbw has only changed once from brown to green. On the other hand, Gap clothing have repeatedly tried to give their logo a sudden drastic change, and each time they’ve changed it back to the recognisable gap logo (which isn’t even all that g