The modernist mark, known as the "worm" by people at the space agency, was one of the few graphical triumphs of the Nixon administration's Federal Design Program. The designers abstracted the A's in the word "NASA" into minimal cones that metaphorically suggest rockets ready for take-off. The modernist worm came under fire in 1992 from NASA chief Daniel S. Goldin, who decided to return to the romantic and figurative trademark of 1959 (known at NASA as the "meatball"). For Goldin, the older logo represented optimistic days of glory for the space program, an era before the space shuttle disaster: "The can-do spirit of the past is alive and well. The magic is back." NASA's rearguard, late-Reagan-era battle with the modernist worm coincided with widespread nostalgia within the design profession for conventional commercial idioms and traditional decorative styles. Angered that the polished modernism exemplified by corporate identity had come to dominate the values of their community, designers drew on forms of communication that seemed free from the restrictive norms of corporate identity. The term vernacular became a label for visual forms ranging from Victorian fruit-crate labels to standard highway signs. [back] © Copyright 1996 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

NASA letterhead, c. 1959, letterpress Designer (logo): James Modarelli NASA letterhead, 1974, offset lithograph Designer: Danne & Blackburn NASA letterhead, 1992, offset lithograph Designer (logo): James Modarelli Publisher: National Aeronautics Space Administration, Washington Collection Cooper­Hewitt, National Design Museum, Gift of NASA