Design studio House of van Schneider has created a visual identity for NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, which condenses the red planet, the Earth and the rover into three simple, flat shapes.
Designed to capture “the energy and heritage of space travel”, the logo and branding were created to mark the launch of NASA’s Perseverance robot rover, which was sent to Mars on July 30 to find evidence of past life on the planet.
The logo of House of van Schneider consists of three parts, including a red color block circle, which symbolizes Mars, and a white geometric shape consisting of uneven stable blocks, designed to stand for the Mars rover.
The third element is a white star, intended to represent what the Earth would look like on the red planet.
The Brooklyn-based studio wanted the emblem to work just as well on the rover itself as on the 191-foot-tall (about 58 feet high) rocket ship.
The simple, flat design of the logo ensures that it can be applied in any size across digital platforms as well as physical formats, without compromising clarity.
It can also be seen on NASA products such as badges and key cards, the latter of which are printed with a simplified, embossed version of the logo without the round background.
“Last year, a fairly well-known space company came out and asked us to design a logo for the Mars 2020 mission. Of course we met,” founder Tobias van Schneider said in an Instagram post.
“We never had our work on a rocket, or sent to space, let alone on Mars. This was a first for the entire House or van Schneider team,” he continued. “It was a great bucketlist project for us and we are grateful for the opportunity.”
The Perseverance rover, operated by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), is due to land on Mars in February 2021.
NASA also recently returned its “worm” logo, designed by Danne & Blackburn, for the first time since 1992. The emblem was previously phased out in favor of the original “meatball” design of the 1950s.
The worm logo was brought back to mark “the return of human spaceflight on American missiles from American soil” when the Demo-2 flight to the International Space Station was launched.
House of van Schneider is one of many studios to adopt a flat design when creating logos. The style is particularly favorite among car brands, including Toyota, Nissan and BMW.
Other companies that do not have car companies to place with flat logos include the British condom manufacturer Durex, which commissioned Creative Agency Havas to create a new brand identity that would challenge “repressive” sexual norms.
