Yaeger

Several days before his supersonic flight in 1947, Chuck Yaeger broke two ribs when he fell from a horse. On the day of the flight, he was in such pain that he was unable to seal the hatch of the X-1. A colleague rigged up the end of a broom handle, which Yaeger used as a lever to close the hatch.

His quote reminds me that talent will only take you so far. As Angela Duckworth writes in her excellent book Grit: “Without effort, your talent is nothing more than your unmet potential. Without effort, your skill is nothing more than what you could have done but didn’t. With effort, talent becomes skill and, at the very same time, effort makes skill productive.”

I wanted the lettering to exude a bold and confidant mid-1940s feel. The extended cross strokes and rakish angle imply speed and create a feel of climbing into the sky.