Okay Geek Farm
Designer nightmare - What NASA thought about their re-designed logo
Brandon Davenport
NASA is one of America’s most recognizable entities, traveling into the unknown where the wonders of space, science and life’s origin are scattered among the planets and galaxies lightyears away. NASA at this time had been using the same logo for decades, and it was time for a change, so they hired Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn to breath some new life into NASA’s identity.
Richard and Bruce got to work on the new designs. They wanted it to be more suitable for different mediums, and be readable from a distance using clear typography. The end product was great, and people know what it means just by it’s shape — they call it “The Worm” logo. It was all good, until NASA’s administrator Dr. James Fletcher, and Deputy Administrator, Dr. George Low, decided to discuss the new logo — it unfolded as follows:
Fletcher: “I’m simply not comfortable with those letters, something is missing.”
Low: “Well, yes, the cross stroke is gone from the letter A.”
Fletcher: “Yes, and that bothers me.”
Low: “Why?”
Fletcher: (long pause) “I just don’t feel we are getting our money’s worth!”
Sometimes the worlds most brilliant people can be mind-blowingly oblivious to how design and computers work. For some reason, Fletcher was worried that the absence of “the rest” of the logo somehow meant that the designers we’re trying to rip them off by giving them less for more. The short story is, that there is no way for a designer to explain this to anyone, and that’s why they drink.
