CMRC (Thistle Graphics + Rocket Skin)
Software: Adobe Illustrator, Procreate.
Tools:
Spraypaint, Liquid Latex
Timeline: Fall 2024 - Spring 2025
Sole Designer (Rocket body built by CMRC team)
Mission Patch for Carnegie Mellon Rocket Command 2025 NASA Student Launch Team. The team wanted a mission patch that incorporated rocket name, design, name of the club, had a connection to the CMU brand, and included a code. Drawing inspiration from the CMU Thistle seal, the flame tail of the rocket resembles a thistle flower and contains custom letter forms that spell THISTLE — referencing the name of the rocket and the shape of the CMU seal. The body of the logo spells CMRC in custom letters; the ending of each letter references the three-pointed CMU thistle logo. The rocket body makes up the center, with Carnegie Mellon written in Morse Code. The background color is one of several official CMU tartan plaids. This is the first time in CMU history that Morse Code was used on a school copyright-approved design.
For the front of the Launch Day T-shirt design, I took apart the CAD render of the rocket, isolated its individual components, and turned them into a 2D illustration. I then arranged one of each rocket body component into a clean, modern, schematic T-shirt design. A playful take on “It’s Not Rocket Science” — reducing countless hours of team work that went into a complex rocket design into a simple apparel design inspired by the LEGO instruction booklets. The back of the T-shirt contains the image of the actual rocket, the names of the sponsors, and a stylized nighttime light map of Huntsville, Alabama, where NASA Student Launch takes place. I designed a hand-drawn pattern for the rocket skin inspired by Scottish thistles as a tribute to Carnegie Family crest as well as a literal representation of the rocket’s name THISTLE (Telemetric High-Altitude Information Sender in a Tube Launched from Earth). Scotty with rocket was an ode to CMU tradition of student organizations personalizing Scotty dog for their respective domains. The Scotty dog was printed on bucket hats for the 2025 launch; the tote bag is a part of 2025-20256 mission merchandise. The Do Not Ride the Rocket sticker was a fan favorite.