Nearly 50 years after it was first introduced, just over 30 years since it was unceremoniously retired and only three years after making its triumphant return, NASA honored the designer behind its retro-cool, sometimes controversial but now seemingly universally loved logotype.
Richard Danne, who in 1975 gave birth to the "worm" — as the simple, red type style of the word "NASA" has come to be known — was invited back to NASA's headquarters in Washington D.C. on Monday (Nov. 6) for a panel discussion about the mark's legacy and to be awarded NASA's Exceptional Public Achievement Medal. The agency also dedicated a large three-dimensional sign in the shape of the worm to Danne and two others who created the worm and first put it into use.
"It's more popular today in the world than it was back then, and that's hard to explain," said Danne. "There's something at the core of the whole thing and the fact it was serious but inspirational in a way. It's hard to do that with very simple things, but that's the way I've lived my life and career, with simplicity, so it works."
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