Designing a single all-encompassing logo for both Space Camp and AC was quite a challenge, even for a highly-skilled designer such as myself who does this sort of thing for a living. SC and AC are two different worlds, and ideally I would have liked to have done separate alumni logos for each program. That would have been a piece of cake! But a single logo was needed, not only to represent the alumni of both programs, but also our new alumni association. So you have sort of a trichotomy there where you have to bring together something that works for all applications into one design. Therein lied my challenge.
Here you see the original concept of the logo. SpaceCanada is right, as an alumni logo, this was meant to be "looking back" and not forward. That's the reasoning behind the Shuttle and the F-16. Every one of our 600,000 alumni have trained in the shuttle, and I'm assuming the F-16 at AC. With the shuttle on there, every one of our SC alumni would identify with this form of the design. The board did not see things the same way, and asked me to change the shuttle to the SLS so it would be "forward looking". When this happened, I wanted to start over and see if I could come up with something else that worked better with SLS, but everyone seemed to love it and I doubt showing a new design would have swayed anyone away at that point. I expected more feedback and development to "grow" the design further, but everyone was happy, so here we are.
For anyone not happy with the current rendering, sit tight, as I have plans for a more simplified, "formal" version with fewer colors that will be more "black tie". It may not be meant as a total replacement, but for special events or occasions. I haven't ran this by the board yet, as I have not had time to sit down and do the work, but perhaps if it turns out good it might be useful for something.
Looking back, looking forward...what we are really doing is looking up! Like the astronaut and fighter pilot in the logo. The sky is the limit for what we can achieve as alumni, and that's the image the logo tries to convey with the SLS breaking out into space. I encourage all of you to sign up with the alumni association on our website and get involved in any way you can. We are lucky to finally be getting this opportunity to have our voices heard in the future advancement of Space Camp and to be able to help things grow. The STA is just the beginning of what we can do.
Thank you.
