Clarity Conf: Designing for Earthlings and Astronauts

At Clarity Conference in San Francisco, Richard Danne discussed his long experience creating style guides for massive organizations. Here are my notes from his talk:

  • Richard didn’t invent the style guide, but worked on the NASA style guide, which was one of the first style guides (and was the first for the U.S. government).
  • The NASA Graphic Standards Manual  began work in 1974 and launched in 1975. It resulted in a great, unified program. Its success was due to it being such a comprehensive document. It wasn’t just  a logo, but a holistic system.
  • It raises design principles to a new level. It was designed for the ages.
  • Mission: “we wanted to bring this tech down to earth”
  • Manual had tabs to flip through to to the different sections:
  • Color – NASA red
  • Logo
  • Business forms – they look so simple, but took over a year to get approval.
  • 4 or 5 different type faces.
  • There was no graphic designer on staff at NASA, so the organization would often take an illustrator and say “Well you know art” and the results were terrible.
  • Had to demonstrate the specifics of how the logo and design should look on ground vehicles, airplanes, and other vehicles.
  • The “flying bathtub shuttles” were all ceramic tiles, so graphic placement was crucial. These shuttles were the first US vehicles to use Helvetica.
  • Required congressional approval and military approval to introduce NASA Red into the color palette.
  • Satellites are still out there with the NASA logo Richard designed.
  • Color had to be flame retardant, which caused a lot of back and forth.
  • Richard was elected as President of AIGA around the time of the NASA manual.
  • When in a crisis, it’s sometimes an advantage to make decisions very quickly
  • Did additional work for NASA, including public broadcasting film titles. Contained the first computer animations done in New York City.
  • “Going to work in space” posters to be circulated at schools.
  • Space technology led to advancements in medicine, technology, etc.
  • 1983 needed to generate a report to see how successful the design system was.
  • Copy Cat Culture – this stuff seeps into culture and has a life of its own. Lots of knockoffs and inspirations from the NASA logo.
  • Other style guides Richard helped create -Department of Transportation, IBM, Bristol Myers, DuPont, FAA, FIT, Mendez Junior, Pratt and Whitney, Atlantic Mustual Companies, Cape Symphony Orchestra, Kid Knowledge, Napa Valley Jazz Society, AIGAwards
  • Recently there’s been a resurgence of print style guides, as people can hold them in their hands and tend to respect them more.
  • The introduction of mobile is forcing us to pull things back and make things simpler, more legible to work on these smaller devices.