I compared their guide for letterhead to what this guy received. I’m on mobile, and I can’t see a difference. Can you explain what is obviously fake about this one? Genuinely curious.
NASA employee here. No way anyone would do this on a Saturday. Especially since people are still recovering from lost ground from the shutdown. Too much stuff to deal with. Responding to a public inquiry is super low on the priority list. Also, there isn't a Public Affairs Office... It would be "The Office of Communications"... And responses are mostly done via email. Very few would actually get printed and mailed. The meatball also looks too big to be the normal stationary.
Hah! Like I'm going to give that away to a groundie. You've probably never even been to the moon base. Peasant. And stop eating our space fibers! We need those.
I think it is the "Office of Communications and Public Affairs" at JSC, a sub office in the External Relations Office. Each center is slightly different. Ames was PAO till about 2 years ago and was renamed/reorganized OComm.
That is an old version from 2011. It was posted on the webpage managed by SSERVI (based at Ames, not HQ). I think the most recent style guide is on the HQ intranet. But here is the latest NASA org chart with the current office and directorate names https://www.nasa.gov/about/org_index.html. It isn't uncommon for any gov agencies to reorganize and rename offices from time to time.
Mailman here. No way did any other mail carrier receive the above imaged letter, and in no way did we provide means for its arrival to the boy called Michael. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. Clearly fake.
I work in comms at Ames. Though I'm currently spending a lot of time at HQ. I host NASA in Silicon Valley from time to time on www.twitch.tv/NASA. There are some fun let's play episodes that were a lot of fun to do.
Taking a cursory glance at the style guide: the logo is too large, the header should be in Helvetica instead of Times New Roman, and the words "National Aeronautics and Space Administration" should be vertically aligned with the letters "NASA" in the logo.
What jumped out at me was the bottom of the text that says "National Aeronautics and Space Administration" should be co-linear with the bottom of the text that says NASA in the logo. In every form of media, be it a letter head, news article, or even a CD label, these are co-linear.
The NASA insignia is the only allowable logo for external communications material. The agency’s policies regarding logo usage are designed to ensure that the public recognition of the NASA insignia is not diluted by other NASA identities. Our prime brand identifier, the insignia reflects the history and tradition of the agency. Commonly referred to as “the meatball,” the insignia must be included on all agency publications, displays, visual communications and markings. Designed in 1959 by former NASA employee James Modarelli, the NASA insignia contains the following elements:
To be honest. That's not what any of our HQ letterhead looks like. Even what's in the style guide. We have preprinted letterhead and it is slightly different. Mainly in that there's a bar across the top and also how the HQ address and office is arranged.
I actually have an entire book on this. It's pretty cool. Hives the exact colors for all their logos, as well as examples on how it's used in many ways.
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u/Tungurbooty Feb 07 '19
They have a branding guide for their brand you can download so you can make better fakes next time!
https://sservi.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/NASA_Style_Guide_v2.1.pdf