Megan Luedke
Mission patches. Such small visual elements on astronauts’ spacesuits. But have you ever thought about how these mission patches were conceptualized, designed, and created?

Jens Bringsjord
Hi, I'm Jens Bringsjord.

Megan Luedke
And I'm Megan Luedke. And in today's episode we will meet with Sara Poletti, a former information designer and science graphics editor for the European Space Agency, or ESA, as the acronym is known.

Jens Bringsjord
So, what is a mission patch? Mission patches are emblems designed and worn by astronauts and people affiliated with a mission to outer space. The patches depict an image associated with the mission and it generally lists the names of the crew. ESA developed their first mission patch with the Soyuz 28 mission back in 1978. Mission patches have been worn by NASA astronauts since 1965.

Sarah Poletti
This is the idea of being information designer. It's just so great to be able to be capable of just making things easier for people to understand. And I think he's great. Just very good.

Megan Luedke
So, without further ado, let's dive into Sarah's story and learn all about being creative within the European Space Agency. Having grown up in France, Sarah's story begins with her passions of studying art and design in Amsterdam at the university called the Garrett Rietveld Academy.

Sarah Poletti
Really wanted to go there and then just to see something else, what's happening on the other country. And I did two years there. Just amazing. Such a different way of teaching graphic design. And then France and this country, the Netherlands, is just for me, it was amazing because even walking in the streets, I was just amazed by like a simple commercial on the, you know, on the wall or like commercial of I don't know what, you know, like from the supermarket next door.

Sarah Poletti
You know, I was like, wow, this is well done. Nice colour. Nice way of putting the fix to these kinds of things. My friend in France, we didn't have this kind of sense. For me, this is just like there is like a big gap between France and the Netherlands and we are close to each other, so it's very real.

Sarah Poletti
I'm here already in the Netherlands for now. After 13 years, I was meant to stay just two years and have stayed. So, I think I would stay forever. It was my study. I did a bit of freelance. I found a job in a company for them, a graphic designer. Very difficult to find. The first job I was just like one of my biggest challenges, I think in my career when you leave school to just find your first job.

Jens Bringsjord
After working some time as a designer. A friend of Sarah's contacted her about a job opportunity for a graphic designer position at the European Space Agency.

Sarah Poletti
They didn't much. They were like more aggressive designer, but also who had mentioned, and 3D animation was just like so big, and it was like that. I was really moved. I was like, what do they want actually? Well, anyway, I'm going to apply. So, for one week I just worked on this. I was so motivated, very real, because I was never attracted to space or science or stuff like is not my thing.

Sarah Poletti
But I don't know. I was somewhat evasive and then I just made like such a cool animation, like a small animation with me as a puppet was trying to show who I am and my experience and everything. So, I worked a lot on it, sent to them and I got my first interview. Pretty cool. Pretty scary also because all scientists like really space geek in front of me, I was alone there and there was like five people guys, only guys.

Sarah Poletti
They are like this, you know, and they're like, okay. So, what do you think about the universe of this kind of real question? You know, I think I would just, like be able to reply to that. You know, I was like, fine. I think they just noticed from my experience in there in space and then what I had to say that I was the perfect student.

Sarah Poletti
I said, because they want somebody who can just talk to general, public somebody you like, everybody, you know, walking on the street have no clue about space. I'm not really interested. And then I think they just wanted to have somebody who can just translate complex thing for everybody to understand. And I think it was just pretty good actually, that that was like me because I'm really like somebody who had no clue about space.

Sarah Poletti
I also didn't really have a yeah, I mean, at this time I remember I was even not sure what planets or the order of the planets, you know. So, they were the sun or after which planet, you know, I was just like really lost. I mean, it's. Yeah, I mean, you are working for the European Space Agency, you know, this is just like, whoa, okay.

Sarah Poletti
What's going to happen, you know, for me? You up?

Megan Luedke
After accepting the position at the European Space Agency, Sarah arrived at her new workplace two months later.

Sarah Poletti
I'm a contractor, so I'm not, like, working for ESA. I'm working for a company outside of ESA, which is our agency. It's the name of the company, and they are recruiting me and putting me on site at them. So, I'm part of another company. So, the company did like free interview with me already to just like be sure that I would be the candidate that they would present user.

Sarah Poletti
And then when the interview with these people like ESA arrived, then yeah, there was just one. And then they had like I think two choices. Like two or three people came for the interview and they chose me.

Megan Luedke
Sarah began her work in the science department, which is trying to communicate everything about science missions at the European Space Agency. They call it the Solar Systems Explorer or the Cosmic Observer Team.

Sarah Poletti
When I arrived there, there were completely and, in this mission, Joseph, I don't know if you heard about it. It's like the first mission that where we just put the lander on the comet. So, nobody did that before. So that was like everywhere I was stuck. Everybody was talking about it. And I also met me with me with the people that I know around me were absolutely nuts space to eat.

Sarah Poletti
When I was talking about mission, you know, other mission, they were like, well, we would use that. But when you talk about opposite that, it was just like, oh, why was it that I read it in the newspaper? Yeah, it was on the news yesterday and so it was like, Yeah, really a big thing. So, I arrived there in the communication team as a graphic designer, continuing to this was attention.

Jens Bringsjord
The European Space Agency currently has about ten graphic designers within various teams throughout the organization.

Sarah Poletti
We are in. We are three graphic designers. I am at the science department, so I'm responsible for the science mission and the only one that there is another graphic designer. We're working at the human and robotic exploration. So, she's the one. We're usually doing all the patches and they're working with the astronauts. And there's the third one, which is she's working for the Education Department.

Sarah Poletti
Pretty awesome. So, each department have like a daily graphic designer with them to our to just to the translation. The infographic graphic illustration is the focus.

Megan Luedke
So how does a designer working in the European Space Agency take all the challenging scientific information and create enticing visuals for the public to understand?

Sarah Poletti
Sometimes you're just looking at atoms or things which are complex for me, yet because I do not have this background. So, a very complex role like gravitational waves. So, this kind of thing know that's just like static shooting. So, I do a lot of research on Internet, so I'm just trying to understand what what’s and I is know that a lot of my colleagues are just sometimes very upset with me about that because I don't like it.

Sarah Poletti
I don't like to read text, so I'm trying to do image search instead of just trying to find like a music video set. So, I'm usually Googling it and put images and then I look at what graphic is already there, how it's possible also to see sometimes animation that I am the best, because I think short animation can explain you like a cool stuff in a very short time.

Sarah Poletti
Which time? It's a bit like everybody. I don't want to spend like more than 5 minutes looking for something terrible is terrible, but we are all like this and this is also our problem as graphic designer because we must make sure that people are getting engaged with our project in less than like 10 seconds sometimes, you know, depending on if they're focused and look the same.

Sarah Poletti
So, I'm just going on social media following people who are doing the same, usually on Twitter. Also, I'm finding a lot of people doing like in graphic designer being in all this science field also. And there's a lot, there’s really a lot. I'm getting inspired by that. And that is one so internet I love to go to conferences, also conferences.

Sarah Poletti
With the pandemic still going on, it's perfect because you can also go to conferences in the States. You know, while you are in Europe. I loved it. It was perfect. Everything was accessible, so it's cool. So, I'm finding that a lot of people just yeah, showing what they do, how they work. And that's helping. That's helping with whatever you're doing as a graphic designer.

Sarah Polett
I mean, you just don't look around and you don't look outside, you know, your own area. Then you can just yeah. Just staying with your own idea, with your own style, and you can just really be challenged. So yeah, that's what's to be done.

Megan Luedke
And Sarah certainly has her fair share of challenges during the workday at the European Space Agency. Not only does she try to communicate important scientific data and information to the general organization, but she also must use that same visual medium to communicate everything worth sharing to the public. Like you and me.

Sarah Poletti
This is one. So how to just be able to reach people who know very well about this subject? So really, the scientist, you know, who knows about the mission, who knows about gravitational waves and these kinds of things, you know, but also the people in the street would just have no clue about these kinds of things, you know?

Sarah Poletti
So how can you just reach both, you know? So, I was just yeah, I was very, very intrigued by it. And then trying a lot of different things. So, my idea and I did quite some project like this is to just really try to do interactive projects and interact infographics, which I tried a couple of times on this, an article where you have layers.

Sarah Poletti
So, you just had the first layer, which is like basic infographic giving you like the basic information and the mission and the results. So, everybody can just read that and then more you click and then you interact with the infographic, then you go deeper, and you have a bit more information. So that was something that I really wanted to do because I have this problem at work where sometimes I don't want to have any problems with the scientists, if I may say, because sometimes I've seen the binary vulgaris and you know, it's like, Yeah, well I just worked years and this one is not just this generation that just with a drawing that you're going

Sarah Poletti
to just make things happen months more. It's really like you must explain more. You must talk about this and this. Yeah, but if you go more, you're going to lose like everybody, all the public that we want to attract and to engage. They're just lost, you know. So, you must really, it's a compromise. And sometimes yeah, sometimes I find it very challenging.

Sarah Poletti
What's happening is that you have a talk with the scientist usually, so we just step up like a small interview where I'm asking my questions and trying to draft a bit with them. What I think it's going to be, it's going to look like I do my address on my computer and the first address to them. They come back with feedback and then it can go like two, maybe 3 to 4, sometimes five drafts.

Sarah Poletti
Again, depending on whom you're working with. But I can, yes, sometimes like in one week, it's very interactive, finished, sometimes it's modern infographic because I mean, this is one project, this sometimes I do like lunch kits for example, which there is like 10 to 15 infographic and it's, it's never really I never had like really like what are last moments tomorrow something happened, you know, in space you really have to work crazy on it's just like in space is kind of predictable, you know, because you can just say, okay, we just send this mission, okay?

Sarah Poletti
Two years is going to arrive to this dimension because we know, you know, and then we had like last week I work on the very cool, very cool article like very cool news. It was like one of our missions. It's called integral. I don't know. It's, you know, it's like a mission that some of the most energy radiation in space coming from space.

Sarah Poletti
So also, like very difficult mission, you know, like very difficult to understand all these things. But what happened is that we lost control of the mission and we almost lost the spacecraft. So, it was really coming very close to the radiation belts. And then there was like there's like just kind of wheels. We're just taking all the energy from the radiation.

Sarah Poletti
And then this we are stopped completely. And all the energy went to the spacecraft and the spacecraft started to turn like crazy symbol everywhere. And then the problem is that just caused a lot of energy for the spacecraft and then there was no energy anymore. So, you know, and you can just control the spacecraft to space the sun to just get permanent, you know, you just exclude them.

Sarah Poletti
You have just 3 hours to just save the mission. So, again, there is no picture, you know, just a lot of stress. And then they succeeded at the end of the story and then it was like, okay, we must explain that, you know, because it's kind of cool. But also, we just succeeded too. And then what happened there, you know?

Sarah Poletti
So, then I also made an infographic explaining this, and this is also supporting a bit like what can happen, you know, in space with our spacecraft and mission.

Jens Bringsjord
Earlier we mentioned that Sara has worked on a few different mission patch designs directly with the astronauts at the European Space Agency. Send up into space. And while these mission patches look like simple representations of graphic design, there is so much more that goes into the design. The colours and the meaning behind the creation of the patch.

Sarah Poletti
The mission patch that I did for the astronaut. That's also completely different because they took me, for example, with Thomas Picquet, the French astronaut. It took me maybe two months to just have like a result, which is actually very short, apparently. So usually it's my colleague, which is working with the HIV department, so with the astronaut and the mission patch.

Sarah Poletti
And then there she was gone for a while and then I was able to work on these two missions because it's not my department, but I was very lucky, so I was very lucky there, very happy that she also let me work on that. I started with the patch of the mind. So, my is the French is the French astronaut, you know, Europe.

Sarah Poletti
And he's working as an astronaut at the European Space Agency, but he's going to French. And I was French. And the first mission I remember Proxima in France, everybody was talking about him just like a celebrity, you know. So, I was like, well, I'm going to work for the American skin. Yeah. Wow. That's something. You know, I was very happy about it.

Sarah Poletti
Yeah. I was also like, you know, like everybody like, well, I'm going to work with an astronaut, quite crazy. And then at the end I'm like, Yeah, actually, you know, he's like, okay, he's going to space, but he's like very, very normal person, you know, very normal. You know, I was just like the first time that we talk, we had like a Skype, a Skype talk, and I was like feeling like, Oh my God, I'm so astronauts.

Sarah Poletti
Like, yeah. And then we start talking. I was like, well, most kind of normal guy. Very human, very human. And then we thought we, we have fun. I also noticed that she was very interested in design, had like very good feeling about it's very good and I like that a lot because I was not just, I was not just explaining things.

Sarah Poletti
It was more like a conversation with to professionally know it. So, I really like that's very respect for my expertise and my work. So that's also very nice. And then we just started, we had already a very clear idea because you went already the first time for his mission looks nice said also for you there and then I don't know if you know but you took a lot of picture of the planet and a lot of astronauts they have this feeling of they see actually the planet from another point of view of Justine.

Sarah Poletti
But they realize have fragilities. So, a lot of them, they have this feeling where they come back. And for him it was very important that he puts. So, he's very concerned about how we can just make sure that we don't mess, we respect our planet, but we don't destroy it. And then there to also feel how fragile it is.

Sarah Poletti
So, there is I like the notion of the better of the escape. I have it here. So, you have like this this colour here 17 colours around the patch and this is the 17 since then, the whole development goals. So, I don't know it's you know, it's there's like no polarity zero hunger or this kind of thing.

Sarah Poletti
So, there's like 17. And for him it was very important that the 17 colours so that has a colour could actually are just part of a sketch to just yeah okay guys there is like these goals that we have to just keep thinking all the time to just make sure that we keep in mind that our planet is fragile and then we have to make sure that, yeah, we respect it.

Sarah Poletti
So that was one. And then we worked a lot on the fact that the mission was called Alpha. So, you wanted to have like this Greek letter at the beginning. So, I did a lot of the draft with this Greek letter, the letter on it, and then and then after I was at camp, there was a lot of things also going on around the fact that he's the first astronaut, he was the first astronauts flying to the to the assist with physics because before it was, we still use.

Sarah Poletti
So now it was just like our crew too. So, I mean, it was like the second crew going, going there. So, it was just big. So that's why we just actually represented like the Falcon and the Dragon and then to make like this launch very, very fast. And there's also like this stuff that we can see and this and stars and things was representing the French astronauts going to space.

Megan Luedke
So let me give you just a little bit of background on who these incredible astronauts are that Sarah designed mission patches for Thomas PESQUET is a French aerospace engineer, pilot, and European Space Agency astronaut. He was selected by ESA as an astronaut candidate in May 2009. From November 2016 to June 2017, PESQUET was part of Expedition 50 and Expedition 51 as a flight engineer.

Megan Luedke
His mission, Proxima, where he became the 10th French citizen to go to space and the first French astronaut to live on the ISS in April 2021 for his Alpha mission, he became the first European astronaut to launch on board an American commercial crew vehicle, the SpaceX Crew Dragon, for a second six month stay on the SS for Expedition 65 and Expedition 66, in which he became the third, is an astronaut and first French astronaut to command the S.S. And that's kind of a big deal.

Megan Luedke
Thomas Picquet returned to Earth in November 2021, shortly after we interviewed Sara. She's also designed a mission patch for Matthias Mauer, a German European Space Agency astronaut and material scientist who was selected in 2015 to become the 11th German astronaut. He was a backup crewmember for Thomas Picquet on SpaceX's Crew two and was later officially assigned to SpaceX's Crew three for his Cosmic Tess mission during Expedition 66 and Expedition 67.

Megan Luedke
This means that while Thomas was returning to Earth, Matthias was heading up to space for the very first time, and Sara was witnessing her second mission patch launch into space. But an astronaut doesn't just wear one mission patch. What do they all mean?

Sarah Poletti
There's another story around. Around the patches of space patches. I just like that I when I, when I just started doing that, I had no clue about this kind of things, and I was completely lost. And when you look at an astronaut also, you can just see all dispatches around them. You know, they're covered with blood sugar like that.

Sarah Poletti
And when in fact. So, I was like, okay. So, for him and for Metz also, they're going to have in their mission like four patches in total. And you have one that's probably no stories. So, there's always one patch which is like from the vehicle was bringing them to space and so that can be, so you set the photographer approximate, but now, yeah, it's like the dragon patch.

Sarah Poletti
And then if you go to space without going to the ISS, the only one that you have if you go to the Asus. So, if you docked to the SS and then you just starting there, your mission, then your part of an expedition and then it's then ISIS expedition and so usually they kind of change expedition in the middle of their space.

Sarah Poletti
So, if they had this experience, they have like, you know, two different expeditions. So, Thomas and Matthew are going to have two expeditions and then you have the easier missions. So, the one that I designed and this one is like from the European Space Agency and it's completely personal. So, it's for just individual astronauts, it's for their mission.

Sarah Poletti
You know, I think because you also work for dispatch, for centre, but it's very personal for them. You know, it's their mission is they want to represent what they really feel about. So being an astronaut, going through the diocese, so this is not something where they just at least for my experience with these two astronauts, it was not something that was like a, you know, okay, let's just do that to whatever.

Sarah Poletti
It's just going to be a simple but, you know, was just like, well, it's going to be the visual representation of their mission. So, something that they're going to follow for like even more than six months because they prepare the mission before they go to mission and after they come back. So yeah, very personal. They are very, very involved in, in the process.

Megan Luedke
Mission patches at ESA are incredibly personal to the astronaut represents their hard work and dedication to this mission. And it's something that European astronauts take pride in. In our conversation with NASA astronaut Nicole Stott, we also had a chance to talk about it. Here's what she had to say.

Sarah Poletti
You know, and ESA has always been really, creative in the way that they you know, whether it's through their patch designs, you know, you look at the space station crew members now and you had, you know, there's the greater mission of the crew. And the space station program. And then the fact that each of those crew members can go can like really to think about how I can like personally to be involved in and a mission that I can share in a, in a creative, unique way.

Sarah Poletti
And it's going to involve all the stuff that's going on otherwise on the station, but just the presentation of it and the personalizing of it and allowing like, like people like you and anybody else who follows along with it to establish their own relationship with it and maybe find something they wouldn't have been interested in before. I think it's all it's awesome.

Megan Luedke
As a designer, seeing your design come to life, whether that's holding a final printed version, visiting your live website for the first time, or no matter what it is, our designer brains send out some serotonin and we feel a sense of pride and euphoria of witnessing our hard work come to life. But not many designers in this world can say that they were able to see their hard work go to space.

Sarah Poletti
Yeah, I think the best thing is just cool to be able to see the patch itself because this is so because the design is something you know and then you have it, that's all. Then the follow up after when you must create this piece, this object, it's also very interesting because you have all this story about how you must stitch the patch.

Sarah Poletti
So, do you go diagonal? Do you? Yeah. Do you go horizontal? Do you go. That's cool. Is it going? So, I had a lot of trouble with the clouds, for example, because I had to make it a bit. Yeah, but you can really see that that yeah. That the cloud and then how to make the name a bit thicker.

Sarah Poletti
Also, we must stitch two or three times to make the volume a bit of the name a bit stronger. The colour, I mean, this nightmare, you see all the colours that there is on the scratch. So, you're like, Is it really the same as in my screen also? It's just it's also a huge work and that's why I think it's great to have them all because all of them, they have their different touch in the in how they are made.

Sarah Poletti
So, it's the same as the Pantone that you have, you know, when you just do some prints. Now we have like also a catalo with all the different colour that's the suppliers having. So, you already before checking. Okay, this one might be good, you know, but you never really know how it's coming with the lights and everything. So, it's sometimes like, well, not this blue that I want, like darker or so.

Sarah Poletti
Yeah, we just do it like this also. Yes, usually does not like so we never did like a patch in the story of Europe and specially so many colours. So that was a bit like, well, okay, that's going to be tricky also because I think the machine that they're using, you can maybe put just I don't know how many colours, but you know, you must look.

Sarah Poletti
So, you mean like you must put the colours and then you must go once and then change the colours. So, I think there is something like this also in total, I think we have four, four samples. The first one was based on key, so different than the last one, you know, even though it's the same design.

Sarah Poletti
But just to tell you how crazy it's going to be, just you just like, okay, after I met the designer, everything was just going to go smooth, you know? But it’s nice that the prints, the prints and even the print, you know, sometimes just because we keep the stickers also and then yeah, the colour of some of the same there.

Jens Bringsjord
Doesn't it sound exciting to be a creative in the space industry? Both Megan and I think so. At least while it might feel like it's difficult to find a creative job in such a tech and science driven organization, Sarah assures us there are many options out there for future employment. If working for the space industry is your dream.

Sarah Poletti
For Europe, at least there is also the country agency store space agency. So, for example, in France we have the U.S. do you have also a DLR for Germany? So, there's a lot of different in each country. You have also liked a space agency. There's also the Canadian Space Agency, which is also quite important. Jack says she wants to go to Japan.

Sarah Poletti
So, there's anyway again, I think you must add the language from the countries, but yeah, there's a quite a lot of places. It's not just nasal or just not easy basic. So sorry, you can just go ahead. I mean, they're just doing such an amazing job, just like you look at the website, you look at all the graphs, each so well, the design is just so there.

Sarah Poletti
You know, it's so important. She's just like, wow, okay. So that I'm sure they have a big team.

Megan Luedke
To take something complex and to simplify for the masses to understand is a true talent and gift, one which Sarah certainly has.

Sarah Poletti
In average field. You know, it doesn't have to be space and everything, but there's like a lot of complex fields where they would need to have like a full-time graphic designer with them to just be able to put too graphic in a distraction context thing for everybody to understand. So, it doesn't have to be I mean, and you don't have to also be interested in space.

Sarah Poletti
It's you don't want to be interested in space, but you can be a bit open minded and then understand that I don't know what is like going to be a mission going to a comet and then maybe extract some things from the committed. And from that we got to know how our solar system would just be all these kinds of things.

Sarah Poletti
You know, it's kind of its easy question. It's easy to be interested in that. It's not like, you know, I mean, it's not the end of the world if you are nuts because and what's you know, I mean, we're still like on planet Earth living our life. You know, space is still far, but still it's just like very interesting questions, interested and that are not that.

Sarah Poletti
Yeah, that is just your own decision, but I think this is nice to just to show yeah. To a trek back to just very simply to just say end but this is here and maybe you would be interested because it's quite interesting but just not like with heavy text or heavy seeing that people are just plots, you know, stuff that people are like, well, no, that's just way too complex.

Sarah Poletti
It's not just the fiction. You must make sure that everybody is just like, oh, we have this too complex science anyway. They're just going to talk about things that's just not talking to me. I sort of made them in the fifties. I was back in science, so all these kinds of things that I was saying before that, you know, we shouldn't yeah, that we should just create material where people are like, well, cool.

Sarah Poletti
Just going to be like, I don't know, like a mission of going to see the moons of Jupiter, I'm afraid. The moon. The Jupiter's moon. I didn't know that. So, let's just look at it, you know? Yeah. This kind of communication. Where doing we invest. Are you interested? And again, you know. But it's nice to just give the possibility people to just be very quickly engaged to it.

Megan Luedke
If there's anything you want to take away from this episode, it's this creativity is everywhere. Design is everywhere. We are by nature, made by design. The space industry continues to push the boundaries through the intersection of space and science, all in part to people like Sarah Poletti. We interviewed Sarah and the end of 2021 while she was still working at VESA.

Megan Luedke
She worked at the European Space Agency from 2014 to the end of 2021, and in January 2022, she joined a strategic design agency that works in the public space, helping governments and organizations connect with their citizens. To learn more about what she's doing now, be sure to check out the links in our show notes.