NASA Design Manual

In what was almost certainly one of the most romanic design gigs of all time, Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn got to compose the NASA Graphics Standards Manual. These guys were doing design that wound up on Space Shuttles, astronaut shoulder patches, super sonic jets, and satellites. 

Their extremely tiny firm determined the design style of space exploration until 1992, when NASA switched to the super ugly "meatball" logo. Still, this careful, powerful manual is such a statement!