Spaceworld is envisioned as the West Coast’s premier space center with immersive exhibits and rides that simulate space exploration. The center is to be located in the immense Hangar One at the NASA Ames Research Park in Mountain View, California.

Constructed in the 1930’s to house the dirigible USS Macon, Hangar One can accommodate ten football fields. Despite being named as a Naval Historical Monument in the 1960's, a massive effort is required to prepare the hangar for its role as a tourist center. Hangar One was built in a time of lead, asbestos and PCBs and poses a significant environmental threat unless carefully cleaned.



The initial focus of the Spaceworld Hangar One project is to generate awareness and funding for this clean-up effort. Even with a board of directors that includes director James Cameron and astronaut Sally Ride, a serious and complete image for the project needed to be developed in order to draw attention to the potential plight of this landmark structure.

THE SYMBOL
The first phase of Manmade’s involvement was to develop a symbol that would form the core of the Spaceworld Hangar One project’s identity.

As more than a million people a day see Hangar One–it is located next to the US101 freeway that runs through Silicon Valley–and as the hangar's structure is in itself iconic, it was decided that this should form the basis of the symbol. Several approaches were reviewed, with the unique arc of the structure's cross-section chosen as the direction for symbol explorations.

The preferred direction was then further refined to create the most visually appealing balance between the arc and its surrounding form.



In defining a color palette for the identity, images from the NASA archive–such as Hubble photographs, Apolo capsules and shuttle instrument displays–were analyzed resulting in a cool, technical palette of aluminum and titanium coupled with the blues of an Earth viewed from space.

In its final version the form of the Arc was softened to fit more closely with the subtle, rounded-corners of the chosen typeface. As a lock-up the Arc is centered between the concept of Spaceworld and the physical location of Hangar One.

In time Hangar One and Spaceworld will become synonymous, allowing the brand to be reduced to simply Spaceworld. Ultimately, the Arc is designed to stand on its own as a symbol of the overall concept and will be used on stationery, signage, clothing and other collateral.

APPLICATION
To aid with application of the new identity a Standards Manual was developed that outlines proper use of the symbol and lock-up on business stationery, print collateral, and presentation tools, such as the PowerPoint slides shown below.



One of the first public applications of the identity is the Spaceworld Hangar One website. The site is designed as a central repository for information about the proposed exhibits as well as a rallying point for the “Save the Hangar” campaign.