Unofficial NASA mission patches

Whenever someone asks me what my “dream job” would be, I almost always say “I’d love to work with NASA.” I was never too specific about it, just touching on that I feel space exploration and the advancement of science is important and it’s something I’d like to help through visuals. When I was a kid in the 1980s we were still very much engrossed in everything to do with space shuttles, the moon, SkyLab and whatever else. I was a space kid, and still am.

Over the last few years I’ve messed around with doing a NASA poster on my own time, but I never felt posters were really the hook. Just not very applicable to what NASA might need. But mission patches … there’s something I’d love to do. Something simple and iconic, embroidered on a jumpsuit. Now that’s cool. So I dug up some inspiration from my childhood and got to it.

So here are 2 mission patches I designed for a few things going on a NASA these days. The first is for MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) which launches in 2012, and the second is for the recently launched JUNO mission to Jupiter. I included the initial colorway for the JUNO patch before I switched to the blue palette. I liked the original, but it didn’t speak “NASA” enough.

Hey NASA, drop me a line if you want to talk. Would love to work with you!


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17 responses to “Unofficial NASA mission patches”

  1. Simon H. Avatar

    Hehe, they look awesome sir. As usual!

  2. Mark Avatar

    They are superb!! STICKERS???

  3. Matze Avatar

    Top-notch work James. Original colorway is my fav!

  4. Pentaura Avatar

    I think the black Juno bage is the better of the two, looks more like space that way. Awsome work on both James!

  5. art176 Avatar

    Great work James, very inspiring!
    Think about abduzeedo’s tutorial, on how to make embroidery
    http://abduzeedo.com/embroidery-effect-illustrator-and-photoshop

    would look incredible
    cheers

  6. Sebastian Andaur Avatar

    Nice badges james !

  7. Ben den Hartog Avatar
    Ben den Hartog

    Could see these things on a spacesuit!! Meeting up with some Klingons(those are pure metalheads with a special shaped forehead to manage airflow which allows them to headbang more rapidly! Yay! (where the hell did that come from all of the sudden :P)

    I like those simple, yet cool illustrations, pure and simple!

  8. Biruk Avatar

    BOLD work!

  9. tofeelhis Avatar
    tofeelhis

    Well done Sir!, very inspiring indeed!

  10. Ryan Avatar

    Those look great. We went to the Kennedy Space Center when we were in Florida last fall.

    I hunted all over their gift shops thinking I was going to find some badassed NASA shirt with some retro logo treatment. No such luck. But I did get one with just the NASA logo on it.

    Hopefully those astronauts will catch wind of your styles and get some merch on the go.

  11. Bryan Heredia Avatar

    These are great, man. Definitely brings me back to the days when I wanted to be an astronaut and boldly go where no man has gone before. Then again, maybe I just wanted to work on the Enterprise…

  12. cool Avatar
    cool

    These are really cool.. remind me of some of the logos in the last starfighter.

  13. Dennis Bonilla Avatar

    Real nice work James. As a designer that works with NASA I’d say your enthusiasm really shows in the work and the write-up. I agree with Mark that these would be cool stickers. You should consider contributing your design talents to a RHoK team http://www.rhok.org/ or trying a stab at a poster of NASA data.

  14. Jason Avatar
    Jason

    I would really really love to be able to purchase these patches for my NASA jumpsuit…I too dreamed of working with NASA, yet my math skills failed me.

  15. Phil H Avatar
    Phil H

    As someone who worked on JUNO– these are BADASS! Great job :)

  16. Derek Avatar
    Derek

    My wife and I just names my daughter, born March 25th, Juno. I was looking into the NASA Mission and came across your patch design. As I searched how to purchase some patches and t-shirts I came across your site. Love these patch designs. Nice work.

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