Assuming I'm not the only one here...

Over in the MechWarrior Online thread in Online Games, I mentioned that the first Kickstarter I found intriguing enough to overcome my innate distrust of Kickstarter was this one, the project to reissue the 1975 NASA Graphics Standards Manual. I saw pieces of the low-rez PDF version of this book in one of the graphic design courses I took last year, and well, it's just my kind of nerdy. And there are still a little less than three days left if you want to get in on it. It's already met its goal, the book is happening, but as it won't be offered for sale to non-backers subsequently, this is the way to get one.

Or, well, won't be offered for sale to non-backers soon, or (probably) in quite the same form. The people behind this project did a previous standards-manual Kickstarter I wasn't aware of when it was happening, to reissue the New York City Transit Authority's standards manual, and that also was only sold to KS backers - but they're coming out with a slightly less fancy edition soon that anyone can buy. It's smaller and doesn't have some of the bells and whistles the KS edition had.

My graphic design prof is also getting them both, and mildly cursing me for bringing them to his attention. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

LAST EDITED ON Oct-02-15 AT 10:33 PM (EDT)
 
It is really cool that they are releasing this. A USG agency rarely does thins kind of makeover in such a completely thought out fashion.

However, I'm of the group that dislikes the worm with the heat of 1000 suns. For pretty much the reasons that they like it. It is an excellent example of modernist design and thinking that results is characterless and indistinguishable corporate logotypes.

More room for creativity with the "meatball".

-VR
On the gripping hand, NASA manned spaceflight division is in a deep hole and will probably stay there, as they apparently have forgotten the first rule of holes.
"They copied all they could follow, but they couldn't copy my mind,
And I left 'em sweating and stealing a year and a half behind."

LAST EDITED ON Oct-02-15 AT 10:38 PM (EDT)
 
>However, I'm of the group that dislikes the worm with the heat of 1000
>suns. For pretty much the reasons that they like it. It is an
>excellent example of modernist design and thinking that results is
>characterless and indistinguishable corporate logotypes.

There is a certain degree of timing involved. It may be that the Worm seems pedestrian now because, in the 18 or so years it was in use, it had so many imitators, in much the same way that the swoopy Star Trek: The Motion Picture titles font seems overly mannered now because every dang scifi property in the galaxy came up with a similar-looking font in its wake.

(Similarly, one expects the designer of Impact was not envisioning the day when the sight of the font automatically calls to mind cat photos with preciously misspelled captions.)

Also, I should note that the red element of the "meatball" insignia, which as you point out often gets used without the rest of the logo, is called the Vector, for obvious reasons. (I believe it was retconned in Star Trek: Enterprise that the Starfleet arrowhead logo evolved from the Vector. For all I know, that may actually be true in a metafictional, the-art-designer-was-looking-at-a-NASA-brochure kind of way. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>There is a certain degree of timing involved. It may be that the Worm
>seems pedestrian now because, in the 18 or so years it was in use, it
>had so many imitators, in much the same way that the swoopy Star
>Trek: The Motion Picture titles font seems overly mannered now
>because every dang scifi property in the galaxy came up with a
>similar-looking font in its wake.

While I can see that in some cases that would be true, in my case I've disliked it for the whole time it was current. If they'd just updated the font in '75, or done a cleanup on the graphics, it would probably have been better. (See wormball or noball) However, in my experience, rebranding "experts" often overdo it in an effort that seems more calculated to impress their peers, rather than help their clients. (One of my worst insults regarding a design is "It probably won a prize.")

<info on ST and the Vector I'd not known>

Cool, but it must have caused some interseries continuity issues. How did they retcon the TOS starfleet logo?

-VR
I mean, there are regiments that have had the same arms for centuries...it's hardly broken their image. Besides, it's not old-fashioned, it's retro!
"They copied all they could follow, but they couldn't copy my mind,
And I left 'em sweating and stealing a year and a half behind."

>Cool, but it must have caused some interseries continuity issues. How
>did they retcon the TOS starfleet logo?

I don't remember if the Vector-like "intermediate" form that appeared in Enterprise was only part of the title ship's mission patch, or was an agency-wide insignia. (They also introduced another organization that used a logo which was recognizably the star from the TOS "Command" version of the Enterprise insignia, the implication being that they eventually converged sometime between the 2160s and the 2260s.)

For the most part, later properties have mostly ignored the fact that the famous emblem was only on Enterprise crewmen's uniforms in the original series, probably because it would take too long to explain on-camera. They've discarded the concept entirely in the recent movies, for example; in the opening scene of Star Trek (2009), the Kelvin crew are wearing it 20-some years before Enterprise was built, so in that timeline it's evidently always been the logo for all of Starfleet.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Mr Scott's Guide to the Enterprise* claimed that the decision was made as part of the uniform changes between TOS and TMP to do away with ship insignia and replace them with a starfleet-wide insignia. This being when Kirk and crew were the much heralded heroes of the fleet for their 5 year mission the decision was made to use the insignia of the Enterprise.

The opinions of the crews of other ships is not recorded.

* Which probably isn't official, admittedly.

>* Which probably isn't official, admittedly.

Unfortunately, it isn't, a victim of "The Great Canon Massacre of the 1980s." Paramount decided (in a fashion that Disney would later ape) to deal with the wealth of fandom in the lead-up to the launch of TNG by declaring that anything they didn't directly own was non-canon. Which is a real shame, as the book is one of my favorites as a Trek fan.

And thus began my own school of canon, the 'Buying the Rights Doesn't Make You the Arbiter of Canon' school. Silly in a way, but it's the only way I could maintain my sanity watching or playing any Star Wars media.

------
Fearless creatures, we all learn to fight the Reaper
Can't defeat Her, so instead I'll have to be Her