Back in 2004, before Columbia was destroyed on re-entry, the STS-115 mission patch was designed. A team of students at York University in Toronto (Steve MacLean's alma mater) did the design, as well as the design for MacLean's personal patch for the flight. A press conference was held at York to introduce the designs, and was made available as a webcast. I took the liberty of transcribing the press conference for my records. Several years have passed since then, and I thought it might be a good idea to share that transcript in order that the information presented there might be fresher in the minds of those with an interest in such things.

The only comparable document that comes to mind is Frank Kelly Freas' "Skylab Patchwork" article, which was published in Analog magazine. This transcript represents a completely different aspect of the story, one that doesn't go into as much detail on the creative process itself, but rather is more concerned with the meta-process: how it came about, the people involved, the coordination and iterative design process.

I personally find this to be one of the more visually appealing and creatively designed STS patches. I am astounded that the crew remained intact over the course of the two-plus years of delay in this mission -- but I'm relieved too, since the crew names are so integral to the design of the patch.

Transcript of the STS-115 Patch Unveiling Press Conference

Held at York University, 11 November 2002

Steve MacLean:
This really was a great project to be involved with, and I'm really excited that Graham and his counterparts won this little competition that we had. When I first asked them to do the design, especially for the crew patch, I thought we had a very small chance of winning because the American side had strong candidates as well. But when I showed this patch to the crew, they liked it from the beginning. And from the first time I saw all their eyes looking at the patch I knew - and they had the other three on the table as well - I had a good feeling that we were going to win. And on the personal patch, I really wanted the personal patch to come from York, and so worked very hard for that to happen, and I actually very much like it as well.
     Some of the ideas in a patch really reflect the personality of the individual. Like, just for example, Neil Armstrong's patch when he landed on the moon, they have an eagle landing on the moon. And Neil, if you've ever seen him, is like the quietest guy that you can meet. He's very reserved, very smart; he's a joy to listen to, because every word means something. He doesn't talk much. He's really a tranquil type of guy. The eagle is the American symbol and it had to be on the patch, and Neil wanted the base to be called Tranquility Base. And just that little fact shows you so much about his character: that it was very important to him that that little place where they landed on the moon was called Tranquility Base
     This patch from my previous crew, here, you can tell it's an engineering-designed patch actually, which is one of the reasons I wanted York- was hoping York could help design my patch. I wanted that kind of artistic flair to it, because many of the patches that you'll see- and there's corridors at NASA where you walk down, and they have the patches of all the different flights, and then the picture of the crew on the other side. It's kind of like a hall of fame, but it's not really a hall of fame because only astronauts walk down that corridor, it's on the way to the simulator; and they are mostly - you can tell that an engineer designed them, is what I'm trying to say. They're not- they just don't have that same- but they do reflect the individuals. Like, here for example, we launched the Lageos satellite, which was an Italian satellite, on my first launch and you see this big red kind of like alpha or omega symbol here I guess, and it represents the continental drift that you get from Italy over to North America, in terms of the laser that's reflected off the Lageos satellite. And so this actually has that symbolism there. You can see the Canadian flag, very, very tiny, but that proves that I was on that mission. And also we were doing an experiment with the Lambda-point of helium, so one of the coldest things in the universe was out in our cargo bay that day, and that's what that red symbol- you can tell it looks like a Greek symbol there, so that represents that as well. But the star, you may wonder what that is, and this is a reflection of the commander. If you look in the description I think it says something about pushing the frontier with a reference to the west and that kind of thing. But really all it had to do with was that the call-sign of our commander, who was a pilot in the Navy, was "Lawman." So on his plane he had the word "Lawman," so basically he said "I want a star on the patch" and that's what we got. And that's how it works. And so when I asked the York class to design the patch, I knew that we were up against that kind of thing. And didn't know what- But I'm just very excited that we're flying both patches from York. I think fine arts at York, for me, made a much bigger contribution than you can actually put your finger on. And I'm just a physicist - I was over on the other side of the campus - but we have a college system here at York, where I lived in Winters college for a couple of years and, fortunately the college system mixes up everybody from the campus, so you got to see what the other students felt and thought and you actually saw the world through their eyes.
     And it gave you an appreciation of maybe how you could modify how you look at things. So, all that was a great experience, I'm really happy that you guys won, this little- it wasn't a big competition, it was low-key, but it was important for me and I'm very happy that it all worked out.

Graham Huber:
Hello, I'm Graham Huber - you two want to come up here? We are the three students that were on the team in charge of designing these patches. This is Gigi Lui, and Peter Hui. I guess I'll talk a little bit about the process that we went through, and that sort of thing.
     Originally when we started this, it was presented to us by Don Newgren, in our summer class, as a voluntary thing that we could get involved with if we had the interest to do so. I think there were about 20 students originally that got in and put forward some designs to Steve when he first came to visit us, and from there he took back the designs and got back to us on which patches he thought had potential, and fortunately it was our team that seemed to be going in the right direction. So from there he gave us the guidance that we needed to move forward on the project; and I believe it was over the summer that we finished the crew patch, and it was accepted. And then after that, we moved on to the personal patch and worked with Steve off and on for a few months to get the jobs done.
     Teamwork at the best of times is usually a delicate mix of social politics - especially when you start adding a creative direction to it. It can get messy really quickly. We were very fortunate on this project because we managed to work extremely well together, and I was very, very surprised. I can honestly say that the results that we produced reflect all of our work and I don't feel - and I know that my team members don't feel - as though one person did more of the work, it's one person's patch more than another. I think we all feel that it is our patch and that we all equally contributed, which is a nice feeling. I mean its nice to get to work on a project, and work together, and come up with something that you feel everyone has contributed to.
     The process that we went through - even though we were working together very well, it wasn't easy. There were a lot of late nights. Typically we began working after 11pm, usually finishing before 4, if we were doing well. It wasn't always easy, especially as it got close to 4 in the morning, but that's just kind of the nature of what we did.
     So, I guess we should unveil them, and let you guys have a look! So, Steve, if you want to come up

Steve MacLean:
Should I pull it this way, or should I lift it gently?
     I think you're going to talk about this a little bit? Okay, I just have one comment to make, and that is: there is a picture that Joe Tanner- a picture of Joe Tanner, actually - and he's very much like this (pointing to the astronaut on the patch); and then you have the terminator of the earth like that, and it's actually my favorite EVA picture. And I did not tell these guys about that picture before we started, and I found it very interesting that- it was easier for me to select, I had two or three to select from, and it was easier for me to select when I saw this, because it reflects this picture of an EVA astronaut just outside the Shuttle, with the terminator of the Earth dominating the background, and I'm especially pleased because of that coincidence.

Graham Huber:
So this is the personal patch that we did for Steve. The concept for this patch actually arose from the original idea that Steve came to us with when we first met. He told us that he wanted the earth, with a maple leaf breaking the horizon with a starburst; and hopefully some elements that would reflect the nature of the mission. The crew patch, as he told us at the time, needed to - as he said, have more of an American flair. So he really wanted his personal patch to have a Canadian flair. Anyway, that's what we kept in mind: to try and give this a sort of a Canadian flair.
     So what we have pictured is the earth, with a maple leaf in the background, breaking the horizon with a starburst. And in the front we have an EVA suit with- that object you see coming up, crossing the leaf, that is the Canadarm 2 that Steve will be piloting on the mission. And that rendering, to my knowledge, is fairly accurate. Steve was very helpful in providing the references, and the images, and the renderings that we needed to accurately put it together, because it's a rather complex piece of machinery.
     This hasn't deviated too much from the original concept that Steve brought before us, but as he said, we came up with the EVA and the arm .... based on another design by another student, actually, who was going in that direction. And Steve liked that, so this is sort of how the process worked - you know, we would see which elements were working from which designs, and try and incorporate them all together. So I guess that's it, that's the personal patch.
     So, this is the crew patch. This is actually the first one that was designed of the two. I personally enjoyed the process that we went through with this one the most, because we did have all the students working together and throwing out ideas. It was just so- it was a real challenge to try and get what Steve wanted, and what the crew wanted actually, down on paper. What we have pictured here is the solar panels, down at the bottom you can see- Peter, maybe you could just point to them - so these are the two solar panels with the Shuttle on top. And you can see that symbol down at the bottom, below the Shuttle, it looks like thrust coming out: that is actually an interpretation of the astronauts' symbol Steve pointed out to us while we were working on it, which is three lines - as you see there - with an orbit around it, and usually a star at the top, but in this case we have the Shuttle. And again, in the background you see the earth with a starburst - the burst is very important on both of these patches because of the nature of the mission: it is a mission to take solar panels to the station so, naturally, the sun has a lot to do with it. In the top corner, that is our rendering of the space station as it will be once the panels are attached to the station. And behind that, of course, a star field with six stars to represent the six astronauts.
     For the Canadian patch, as we said, we wanted to capture that Canadian flair, so the color scheme kind of changed around a bit. We had a few variations in it, we kind of whittled it down to the final version. But we wanted to keep the red in the Canadian patch, obviously, for the Canadian red, and we thought that was important. The crew patch, we wanted to keep the palette very, very simple. So, one highlighting color, and a base of fairly neutral cool colors - because one of the things we noticed about the other patches, as Steve said, they were primarily designed by engineers, so they captured conceptually what the missions were about but- I guess the best way I can describe most of them is fairly busy. Lots of colors, and lots of things going on, and sometimes its difficult, especially with the complex nature of the missions, to ascertain what they're trying to say amidst all the colors and objects on the patch. So we wanted to keep things simple, clear, understandable. So that's why the color scheme on the crew patch is kept very simple, and hopefully effective.

Gigi Lui:
My background is, I came from Hong Kong. I was born and raised in Hong Kong, until I was about 11. I came to Canada. And I've been really interested in art ever since I was very young kid. And then I went to the Unionville high school fine arts intensive program, and then eventually I thought York-Sheridan program had a lot of potential, especially in graphics design because York and Sheridan are both very reputable university and colleges in Ontario for this kind of education, and I thought that, when I was reading the questionnaire that they provided us for entry I thought that was a sign that I know that this program is where I should go and that's why I applied and I came here. And I've been really interested in this project because as you know most children will watch space, you know, watch cartoon or watch fantasy space as one of those things that's very imaginary, and if I cannot go physically I would rather my intellectual property go up in space.

Peter Hui:
I was also born in Hong Kong, I emigrated to Canada when I was 8. And I've always been into the fine arts stream, and coincidentally also in the science stream. It just so happens I've always been interested in space, and I really wanted to take this opportunity to really do something artistically, and combine it with something to be shown, not in a scientific way, but to be shown and flown in space. So I guess that the most interesting thing about this project for me was that I was able to find a lot of the technical aspects - a lot of the science, if you will - and try to illustrate all that in what Steve MacLean says - in an artistic flair. And so I feel that personally, as a team we were able to achieve this.

Graham Huber
Um, I was not born in Hong Kong... I was born and raised in Toronto, and like my teammates here, I was always into fine arts, and that sort of thing. At the end of high school I didn't really know what I wanted to do. My parents are both from a science background, and my sister is also in that field, so it was always kind of assumed I think that I would move in that direction. But my mother actually raised the design program here at York to my attention when I was in grade 12, and it was just something that kind of sat in the back of my mind and I always considered it. But when the time came to apply, I applied, I got accepted and then the more and more I got into the application process I realized this was something that I wanted to do. So I'm very happy, and I have no regrets.

Q: Can the level of detail that you have on this size of an image be transferred to- like it's hard to imagine such a small patch. Do you have to worry about that?

Graham Huber
We did when we were designing the patches, and we had a little bit of guidance in terms of the number of colors to use, and level of detail. So we've been told - judging by the other patches that we've seen - that hopefully most of it will be able to fit in. We haven't heard anything from the production end yet, so typically if there was a problem we would have heard about it by now, so I'm assuming that everything went okay there.

Q: I wonder if Steve could tell us where the patches actually go?

Steve MacLean:
Actually there's different combinations, so it's hard to describe it completely. But typically the crew patch will go right here (pointing to right breast) so as soon as it arrives I basically replace this one (pointing to his STS-52 patch) and then the personal patch is on the right shoulder. So that's what all the international astronauts are doing, in that fashion. Also, when I do an EVA the crew patch is right center on what's called the PLSS, which is the Primary Life Support System, right center here. And the Canadian flag is on one side, and I actually have a choice of what to put on the other side (pointing to his left shoulder). There is some, uh, influence from other directions, though. So I'm not sure if on my EVA suit the personal patch will end up there but we'll see, we'll try.

Q: How long did you take...

Graham Huber.
The total duration was, over I guess from June to about end of October. Now obviously there was brief delays in between, as Steve was busy with his training just in terms of feedback and so on, It was kind of an ongoing project, that we would make the revisions as requested, send them down, and then a week or two later we'd get feedback, and then implement further changes. So it was just more or less just an ongoing project for about four months. But never at any point did the project drag and we weren't thinking - oh god I hope they hurry up on this but it was always interesting to work on and just kind of kept moving, which was nice. It didn't stall for months and months and months and just leave us wondering, you know, what was going on. So I was pleased with the pacing, it wasn't too fast, it wasn't too slow.

Q: What was the most difficult part?

Gigi Lui:
Well the most difficult part for us, for the Canadian patch, was trying to fit all the elements that we wanted to incorporate, that Steve wanted to see in his patch, down to a patch that is producible and also very visually appealing. That was the most difficult for the Canadian patch. As for the American patch, I think the most difficult was trying to put a layout of a patch that would represent the mission very well, but at the same time will reflect the personalities of the astronauts - you know, their putting up solar panels will not reflect the personal aspect very well, you know - working with the composition itself so that we get a lot of symbolism on the patch without overdoing with a lot of graphics itself.

Graham Huber:
I'd just like to thank, first of all, Steve for everything that he's done for us. He has been incredible to work with, extremely accessible, right down to replying to our e-mails right away, providing personal phone calls from my cell phone with horrible reception at 10 at night - I mean, he has just been wonderful to work with. And this project would not have been the same without his unending help on this. So I'd like to thank you, Steve, for this and for the opportunity. And I'd also like to thank the design department, specifically Don Newgren for all your help and your guidance with this project, and again, also for providing us this opportunity. And to the rest of the department, to Barb and Cecily, and the students who helped initially with the design concepts, all of you. Everybody on this project was an asset and helped us - nothing like this is ever done alone and I'd just like to thank all of you.

York University is located in Toronto, Ontario.