Category: Inspiration

Patches from Outer Space

On my families recent trip across the US, we had the pleasure of staying with a family Mara, my wife, used to nanny for. In their basement they had a room filled with very interesting framed collages. The husband of the family used to work as a doctor for NASA and had 10–12 collages from the crews and the missions he worked with. These collages featured various photos from the mission, notes from the crew, and patches that had flown with the crew in outer space. These patches instantly caught my eye. I enjoy the look that a design takes when it is embroidered, and the limitations of designing for a small shape, make patches an interesting design study. Add the fact that they were at one point in outer space, even better!

Here are some of my favorites:

Caption below this patch, “This patch was flown aboard the Orbiter Discovery, STS-48, September 12–18, 1991.”

I like the U.S.A./Russian wings surrounding the shuttle and the gold around the outside makes it pop.

The outside ribbon fold adds a unique border around this shuttle that is coming at you.

Not a big fan of this design, lots of elements but nothing really stands out. The colors suggest this might have been a mission in partnership with Germany.

This design has a much stronger composition. I like the spinning flag connected to the shuttle wings. Looks modern and retro at the same time.

I liked this patch the best. The geometric sunburst/moonburst creates a simple but powerful image that I would love to rock on my backpack. You can see how the embroidery adds so much depth compared to the digital version.

These are two Russian emblems in a collage that didn’t have any extra information to determine their origin. I like the simple modern shapes, good inspiration for future projects.

NASA has a database of all of their mission patches if your are interested in further investigation.

Posted In: Inspiration, Space