122: NASA Mission Patches with Artist Tim Gagnon

EPISODE 122

Jun 3

“Everything in a NASA mission patch exists for a purpose. Every part is deliberate and important.” -KSCArtist Tim Gagnon, from Casual Space Podcast

Have you ever really looked at a mission patch? Every detail was designed and put in place specifically for a reason. Artist Tim Gagnon has “had the honor and privilege” to have been selected by several NASA Flight Crews to design their mission patches. Perhaps you have seen several of his patch designs (Tim has designed many for both space shuttle missions and International Space Station missions)? On this episode, Beth asks Tim about his work as an artist, and how he was first commissioned to work with the NASA crews, and reviews several specific patch designs with Beth.

Beth and Tim reference several specific mission patches. You can see them here, along with all of Tim’s work: https://www.kscartist.com/

More about Tim, in his own words: “A self-taught artist since 1974, I enjoy painting portraits and graphically designing commemorative emblems for various organizations. I especially enjoy the challenge of relating a mission objective in a four inch square canvas.
I have had the great honor and privilege to work with a number of NASA Flight Crews on their mission patches. To see my work orbiting the Earth is the ultimate compliment.
I am always looking for new challenges and to assist organizations that promote space-science education. I strive every day to do the same with my modest talents. Only you, the viewer, can decide if I have succeeded.”

What does art do for space, and vice versa?

“You know how you have color commentators for sports? They often fill in the details and help humanize the people playing and so forth? What art does for space is to humanize the mission and the goal for all the people involved [in that mission]. It’s why patches have lasted this long, and I suspect a couple of hundred years of now, someone will do a search on a mission and understand what the mission was about, and help to understand something that I was involved in.” -Tim Gagnon from Casual Space Podcast

Beth asks Tim about several specific NASA patches: