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NASA reveals secret 1970s SPACE PANTS

The decade that taste forgot emerges from the space agency's design archives

NASA has released its graphics manual from 1976.

The manual (PDF) explains how the agency's logo, typeface and other visual identifiers are to be used.

NASA's administrator of the time, Richard H, Truly, writes in his introduction that the manual is no mere document for style wonks but ““a new tool to enhance and symbolize the progressive path we have always followed”.

The manual offers illustrations of planes, trucks, the then-under-construction space shuttle and even the rather fetching NASA attire depicted at the top of the story.

As is often the case with such documents, the “suggested” designs are very, very detailed. The guidance for planes, below, is well worth a look for the sheer number of elements NASA could be bothered to think about for its fleet.

NASA's design guide from 1976 as applied to planes

NASA's design guide from 1976 as applied to planes. Click hereto embiggen and view in detail

Why has NASA released this blast from the past? Last week a pair of designers hit Kickstarter seeking to re-issue old NASA manuals as a book in order to preserve what they feel are important moments in design history. The Kickstarter handily hit its target, but information seems, once again, to want to be free. ®

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