NASA Playing Cards

NASA Playing Cards

“The Worm” 1975 – 1992
Designed by Brad Fulton Featuring artwork from the NASA archives. Printed entirely in the USA. These are the only current American Made NASA Playing Cards. Fulton's Playing Cards has approval by the NASA Office of Communications to sell NASA merchandise. These NASA Playing Cards celebrate the beginning of "The Worm" Logotype and feature completely custom cards and court cards using actual graphics from the appropriate era. This deck tells the story of the changing logotype of NASA from "the meatball" to the invigorating graphics package delivered by Danne & Blackburn to usher in a whole new graphical era of the US Space Program.

In May of 1971, President Richards Nixon approved funding to create the US Federal Design Improvement Program. This program would beautify and redesign the logos and identity systems for more than 45 federal agencies.

Following the moon landing in 1969, NASA was receiving a critical mass of media attention. “The Insignia”, or “the meatball” had been in use since 1959 and proved hard to reproduce in print and signage—giving way to the notion that NASA was deserving of a complete identity overhaul.

New York Design Firm, Danne & Blackburn submitted a proposal in 1973 for the redesign of NASA. Following their selection, Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn got to work on what would be know as a “logotype” that was capable of clean reproduction and striking identity on a multitude of mediums. The logotype was in active use from 1975-1992, when it was ultimately retired and replaced by the very insignia that it replaced.

Know today as “the worm”, this iconic logotype is what many of us think of when we hear the four letter acronym NASA. NASA is the short term for National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The NASA Worm Playing Cards from Fulton's Playing Cards are a unique deck of 56 cards in regular size printed on card stock in the United States by Fulton's Playing Cards. Each NASA playing card deck has 2 Jokers + 2 NASA info cards.

NASA Worm Playing Cards
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
56 US REG. SIZE PLAYING CARDS NASA
Logotype © National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Printed in the U.S.A. Distributed by Fulton's Playing Cards.