![]() ![]() ![]() Indeed, a feeling of nostalgia for the warmth and familiarity of the previous logo slowly emerged, leading NASA to decide in 1992 to dust off the old meatball, which, it seems, had never really gone away. The futuristic style of the new logo was very popular among designers in particular, but it certainly did not have the widespread appeal of the meatball. The snake-like, zig-zag style gave the new NASA logo the nickname ‘the worm’. The result was a minimalist, ultra-modern logo displaying the name NASA in a thick font, with the two As missing their crossbar, and so reminiscent of rocket nose cones. Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn, the co-founders of the New York-based design studio Danne & Blackburn, were commissioned to create the new design. The redesign formed part of the Federal Graphics Improvement Program, which aimed to give government agencies, which were often burdened with unappealing, bureaucratic-looking logos, a fresh new look. And it remained popular, with this nickname, until 1975, when NASA decided that the time had come to give its visual identity a makeover. Perhaps due to the round shape of the image or the Italian-sounding name of its creator, James Modarelli’s logo was rechristened ‘the meatball’. Plus the name NASA, written in white in a thick serif font. The result was a simple yet equally rather complex design incorporating several references to space missions: the sphere recalling a planet, a sprinkling of stars representing space, a red, V-shaped wing paying tribute to aeronautics and a circular orbit that depicted space travel. The task of designing the new one was handed to James Modarelli, an illustrator at NASA’s Lewis (now Glenn) research centre. It needed a new logo, less formal than the previous version, to mark this change. It was 1959 when the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) became NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration), the agency that would go on to make incredible progress in research into space and aeronautics. From the meatball to the worm and back again If you’re unfamiliar with the story behind the logo of NASA, the government body responsible for the USA’s aerospace research and exploration programme, you probably wouldn’t expect it to feature quite so many anecdotes and pop references. ![]()
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