“A driving force and the use of innovative techniques and ideas have brought NASA the image of a get-it-done agency, and the record backs up the reputation. As we move ahead to an even more exciting era in aeronautical research and space exploration, we have added a new tool to enhance and symbolize the progressive path we have always followed. Not as suspenseful as a Command and Service Module splashdown nor as dramatic as a Mariner flyby, it is nonetheless of major importance because it is designed to achieve maximum communication of the agency’s program objectives, both internally and externally. We have adopted a new system of graphics-the visual communications system by which we are known to those who read our publications, see our vehicle markings and signboards and the logotype that unmistakably brands them as NASA’s.”
So began the introduction to NASA’s then-new style guide, the NASA Graphics Standard Manual, issued in January 1976 with an introduction by NASA Administrator Richard Truly. The above image is only one of the gems found therein.
NASA Graphics Standards Manual (1976)
The NASA History Office also has a variety of books on subjects ranging from our latest—Emblems of Exploration—to aeronautics. Find them on the eBooks page.
