My newly purchased book arrived in its own space suit on Thursday!  Naturally —it was a reproduction of the mid-1970's NASA Style Manual.  There is a graphic arts company (http:\\standardsmanual.com) in NYC which specialize in such reproductions.  

My 30+ year career splashed down in the aerospace industry, though as an engineer and not a graphic artist.  It is a career focused in commercial aviation, not the space industry.  But there's a tether between the two sectors and they share commonalities and overlap.  This NASA manual had an appeal to me, professionally and nostalgically.  I loved following the space flights as a kid in the 1960's and 70's.

Mostly, I like graphic design as a personal interest.  I especially like to understand how it often is derived.  A standard is a tool that shows you how some of it is developed and scaled.

It's a geeky side of me.  Sometimes, I feel like the guy who put the 'eek' back into geek.  But that's alright.  These things satify a curiosity itch.

Last year this same graphic arts group produced a similar reproduction for the NYC Transit Agency Style Guide.  I picked up that standards manual up as well.  I even used it to help develop my own 'transit map' of a complicated engineering system for work.  It helped colleagues see the flow of things through different touchpoints, or stations, along the products' life cycles.   The system map allowed one to see the entire system in a single view.  Station maps allow people to find their way into and out of individual touchpoints.

Both books are beautiful and informative books, nicely reproduced.