As America moved into the mid-century the fascination with space exploded, impacting many parts of our culture from radio, tv, movies, and magazines all the way into branding and advertising. You could literally get into a Ford Galaxie, go see 2001 A Space Odyssey, while eating a Milky Way, wearing an Astros hat, maybe having a toy rocket in your jacket pocket and not even see the space connection to it all. The place that space impacted the most in branding appears to be in the stencil branded drums, so here is a little tribute to many of the space themed drum brands of the 60’s and 70’s.
The biggest of these was not only a brand name but also a manufacturer. Star came into existence in 1961 by the company Hoshino Gakki and lasted until their rebranding to Tama in 1974.
Even to this day the Tama brand tributes its Star heritage with several sub-brands.
There were a couple of brands outside of the Star family that also capitalized on the Star name.
One of the most famous stars (in the sky) is Polaris, which is the fancy name for the North Star. (Notice both badges incorporate beams of starlight into their logo designs.)
A couple of very famous brands in the stencil world were inspired by the American space program. (The Mercury Space Program was from 1958 to 1963 and the Apollo Space Program was from 1961 to 1972.)
I also found these somewhat space related brands.
Possibly my favorite is this Rocket badge. This specific badge is my recreation of a pretty rare badge out there, but they nailed that cartoon rocket shape that were found in many toys and comic books in that era.
In my searches I could not find any single industry that had so many products that hitched on to space related themes. So it’s official; MIJ Drums are the champions of the universe!