Amateur design

8th Weather Squadron AAF

When I was a kid, it was generally easy to happen upon embroidered patches from U.S. military uniforms, either when visiting relatives (nearly all of my uncles had served in the armed forces, most in the USN) or at surplus stores. Via Coudal comes the WWII Squadron Patch website, which makes a great deal of Disney and Warner Brothers participation in the design of aircraft nose art, some of which migrated into individual squadron insignias. More interesting, however, is rampant evidence of amateur contributions to the designs: there are hundreds of patches and logos documented throughout this home-grown site, across two Army Air Force pages (here and here); Navy and Marine Corps aviation; plus Flying Tigers, allies, and others.