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Author
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Topic: NASA's Viking Mars lander logo design contest
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42984
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 12-21-2007 08:34 PM
   
The Art Litho Co. release Viking Lander EmblemPeter Paul Purol was selected as the national winner of the Viking Student Emblem Contest, May 4, 1975, sponsored by NASA and the National Science Teachers Association with his original design. Contributing greatly to the design is the essay he wrote on the significance of his emblem. Paul is a student at the Patapsco Senior High School and the Dundalk Vocational Technical Center where he studies commercial art under the instruction of his sponsoring teacher, Mr. E. Paul Dyson. Paul's winning entry will be painted on both the Viking spacecrafts and carried to Mars.  |
Philip
Member Posts: 5952
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted 12-22-2007 05:22 AM
I have been collecting Mars exploration memorabilia for over 30 years now and never saw one in cloth. This logo was used on the Viking mission press kit. |
Apollo-Soyuz
Member Posts: 1205
From: Shady Side, Md
Registered: Sep 2004
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posted 12-25-2007 11:12 AM
NASA News Release #75-100 announced 12 finalists were chosen in Viking Student Emblem Contest. The 12 were high school students whose designs were picked from hundreds of entries submitted. 
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Apollo-Soyuz
Member Posts: 1205
From: Shady Side, Md
Registered: Sep 2004
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posted 12-25-2007 11:12 AM
 
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Philip
Member Posts: 5952
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted 12-26-2007 03:39 AM
It certainly looks like they made the right choice!!! |
Curator at GSLASM
Member Posts: 11
From:
Registered: Dec 2014
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posted 12-26-2014 05:39 PM
I came across this thread while cataloging items for the Greater St. Louis Air and Space Museum. I can add something to this discussion as I entered that contest, and I was one of Peter's classmates. (No, I do not have contact information.) The emblem as used by NASA was changed slightly from the artwork he submitted. I believe there was some minor cleanup of the lettering and details of the lander, but I am sure that the flag was changed. The original drawing had a larger single star in the blue field on the American Flag. |
KSCartist
Member Posts: 2896
From: Titusville, FL USA
Registered: Feb 2005
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posted 08-06-2016 06:18 PM
The recent Viking anniversary encouraged me to dig through old scrapbooks for this image I knew I had. It's from 1972. I'd like contact the artist Jonathon Little. He'd be in his early 60s. I'd love to see the color version or help him recreate it and offer it as a commemorative. I'd also like to learn if he still creates art as good as this.  |
Wehaveliftoff
Member Posts: 2343
From:
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 08-06-2016 08:19 PM
I had an entry in this, but recall a student from western Pennsylvania won this. Recollections, on the outskirts it had a "male" symbol of a circle and the arrow pointing outward. Was that another "symbol" of this Viking mission?Each entrant received a certificate of recognition signed by two men, I do not recall whom, as I threw this away five years ago I think. I had Bradford Smith, head of the Viking imaging team, sign in the middle. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42984
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 08-06-2016 11:22 PM
Your recollection matches this patch, but I believe it was a commemorative or souvenir design, separate from the student contest. The below emblem borrowed its shape (the biological symbol for man) from the project's own use of the same, as seen on Langley Research Center flyer contemporary to the mission. |
Ronpur
Member Posts: 1211
From: Brandon, Fl
Registered: May 2012
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posted 08-07-2016 08:07 AM
That symbol is also the symbol for Mars. |
KSCartist
Member Posts: 2896
From: Titusville, FL USA
Registered: Feb 2005
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posted 08-08-2016 05:49 PM
quote:
Originally posted by KSCartist:
I'd like contact the artist Jonathon Little.
Thanks to my friend Kim Smoak McNulty I was able to contact Jonathon Little today.He was pleasantly surprised that I had saved the clipping all these years and it brought back memories of participating in the competition. He was able to share a color version of the design. Sadly there won't be any patches made.  |
lucspace
Member Posts: 403
From: Hilversum, The Netherlands
Registered: Oct 2003
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posted 03-08-2018 02:34 AM
I always found the design at the top of this thread a particularly striking one. Was it ever used on the spacecraft or launcher? And would it be a NASA design and therefore free of copyright? It would look very nice as a patch... |
Liembo
Member Posts: 583
From: Bothell, WA
Registered: Jan 2013
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posted 03-08-2018 10:48 AM
Designs used by NASA are almost always in the public domain, there are some slight differences in usage with crew names, but overall insignia of this type should be public domain images. See this cS thread. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42984
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 03-08-2018 11:13 AM
The complication here may be that Viking was a project managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a public-private partnership between NASA and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). I don't know if it applies in this situation, but JPL has been able to assert rights to NASA mission imagery and designs, requiring they be licensed for use. For example, Mattel needed a license to produce the Hot Wheels Mars Pathfinder. So you may need to reach out to JPL first to inquire about rights to the logo before freely using it to produce patches for sale. |
lucspace
Member Posts: 403
From: Hilversum, The Netherlands
Registered: Oct 2003
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posted 03-09-2018 05:47 AM
Thanks for pointing this out, Robert: I will certainly contact JPL first! |
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