AHED

Logo design

1 minute read.

Brief

Develop a logo for NASA Astrobiology Habitable Environemnts Database (AHED).

The mark had to work across digital and printed formats and fit within an already approved and in development layout where the mark had to be superimposed on photos representative of what the project is investigating.

Research

The most interesting thing about working as a graphic designer is that you end up learning about lots of things you had no idea existed .

In this case, I had to learn something about the field of astrobiology and its intersection with information technology . Besides taking time to talk with the client, which helped me with pointers to similar projects and to things they liked in general, I looked up the publicly available material on the subject to familiarize myself more with the aesthetics of the sector .

Development

From the onset, the requirement about the integration in an already solidifying layout idea, hinted to a mark that had to be “iconic” and feature little detail, which would be best if it worked also in black and white and could be reversed to fit backgrounds to light or too dark.

As a SciFi enthusiast I earlier on got too much fascinated by an extraterrestrial spin on the mark, whereas what was really asked for, I ended up learning, was to think more down to earth.

Though, the out of this world explorations helped identifying how symbolisms referencing planets and stars resonated with both the IT and the scientific sides of the team and so from the earlier sketches through a lot of iterations and wrong turns we landed on a coordinated set of assets.

Colophon

I learned that scientists are as concerned about details as graphic designers are, and will allow for very little or more often no poetic licenses.

At times this level of scrutiny was hard to deal with but on the positive side it really pushed me to try harder and not get personally attached to any particular solution.