Reviewed: New Broadcast Graphics for Launch America by Oxcart Assembly

“NASA, We Have No Problems”

New Broadcast Graphics for Launch America by Oxcart Assembly

This past May 30, NASA, in partnership with SpaceX, successfully launched the Falcon 9 rocket with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program and the first from U.S. soil in nine years as well as being the first ever to come from a commercial partnership. The event was broadcast and promoted as Launch America, which has been a theme for launches associated with the Commercial Crew Program and has now been expanded into a formal graphics identity for use on NASA TV and other NASA channels and platforms. Spearheaded by Paul Wizikowki who was the Executive Producer and Creative Director of the entire Launch America broadcast the identity and broadcast graphics were designed by Oxcart Assembly.

Design Week has a good interview with Paul Wizikowki where, among other things, he equates this project to the NFL's Monday Night Football: "Within Monday Night Football, you have the overarching entity of the NFL entity brand, which in our case would be Launch America, and then you have each individual team's branding too, which this time was NASA and SpaceX, but in the future will also be NASA and Boeing."

LAUNCH AMERICA (LA) has been a theme for launches associated with the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) and has now been expanded into a formal graphics identity for use on NASA TV and other NASA channels and platforms. More specifically, NASA has developed a LAUNCH AMERICA graphics package for CCP launch awareness campaigns, CCP launch press briefings and CCP launch broadcasts beginning with the first crewed CCP flight, NASA's SpaceX Demo-2. This work is a series of animations and graphic design elements based upon the pre-existing LAUNCH AMERICA logo and incorporating NASA's 'Meatball' and 'Worm' branding as well as SpaceX branding. This guide is expected to grow with each new CCP mission to weave in the stories and partnerships involved.

Launch America Graphics Guide

New Broadcast Graphics for Launch America by Oxcart Assembly
Logo.

The logo wasn't designed by Oxcart Assembly and while I couldn't find an official credit I am guessing it was designed in-house at NASA, which has a knack for so-bad-they-are-good graphics and this one fits the style with an awkward drawing of the International Space Station, some generic-looking sans serif, and obligatory stars. It's not super bad but it's not necessarily good. It's important to start this review with acknowledging the logo because it highlights the Herculean achievement from Paul and Oxcart Assembly to take that as the starting point and build something... anything... good. In a hypothetical world where I am approached to do this, I would have been like "Nah, sir, can't do anything with this. Pass." But not this team, so major pats on the back to them.

New Broadcast Graphics for Launch America by Oxcart Assembly
Typography.

The first step was to ignore the typography in the logo -- 🤣 -- and introduce a much more interesting, techie-looking and action-oriented type family, Estricta. It's a type family I would never look at twice -- not because it's bad but it's not my style -- but it works perfectly in this project.

This visual identity builds on the Commercial Crew Program theme of Launch America and brings it to life through motion design by combining recognized elements, such as NASA color-type and the existing LA insignia, with progressive elements. These uniform graphics provide the framework for establishing a visual identity.

Launch America Graphics Guide



Various logo loops.

Going back to the logo... it's so amazing that they were able to activate it in any kind of attractive way and how the logo animates out of thin air and into the NASA Meatball logo is nearly a miracle but it sets the tone for the highly detailed and super smooth set of motion graphics that make up the broadcast package.


Astronaut highlights.

Countdown clocks.
Backdrop with ship. Wait for it, wait for it... also, squint a little.
Mission steps.

There are so many great details throughout the various elements. I was personally sold with the video directly above that captures all that is good about this project, from the thin-stroke illustrations and borders to how things slowly animate out of thin air to the subtle constant motion to the typography. The countdown clocks are impressive, with the texture inside the numbers and animated stroke and I find myself cheering for the astronauts whose title cards look as cool as any athlete on any sport on ESPN or something like that.

How all the elements came together.
Launch America title sequence.

Overall, what I think is most impressive is that they built something where there was nothing... meaning, there isn't a playbook or big precedent for rocket launch broadcasts at this scale and everything here has been so well considered. Even if this isn't your jam -- which is totally fine, it's not exactly mine either -- the concerted effort across all the myriad components is quite commendable so we definitely have lift-off.



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