On Twitter, Nancy Springer asked

It’s a fairly common question since our logo, a rhinoceros working on a keyboard, is a bit odd. For the full skinny, I asked Tachyon head honcho, founder, and publisher Jacob Weisman.

The logo, designed by Michael Dashow on a hotel room napkin at the 2002 San Jose World Science Fiction Convention, is based on our most successful book at that time,
Peter Beagle’s THE RHINOCEROS WHO QUOTED NIETZSCHE AND OTHER ODD ACQUAINTANCES. (The cover, incidentally, won Mike the Chesley Award for the Best Paperback of
1997.) Mike and I had previously discussed creating a logo, but we’d always had trouble envisioning how to represent a tachyon.  Something fast and smart no doubt.  A cheetah (with glasses)?  or perhaps just a big T, slightly crooked to imply movement?  

The timing was right for the new logo since after losing two distributors, I was looking
to relaunch the company. Along those lines, I brought in Jill Roberts as
managing editor and signed with a bigger, more reliable distribution company (IPG).
The first books with the new distribution company were also the first to
appear with the new logo: Sheila Finch’s READING THE BONES, Michael
Swanwick’s CIGAR-BOX FAUST, and a third printing of RHINOCEROS.  

Mike was the artist
and/or lead designer on most of the earliest Tachyon covers,
including GANGLION by Wayne Wightman, THE BLACK FLAME by Stanley G.
Weinbaum, STANDARD CANDLES by Jack McDevitt, OVER THE RIVER &
THROUGH THE WOODS by Clifford D. Simak, THE MORTAL IMMORTAL by Mary
Shelley, THE POST MODERN ARCHIPELAGO by Michael Swanwick, DANCING ON
AIR by Nancy Kress, PORTRAIT OF JENNIE by Robert Nathan,
THE BOSS IN THE WALL by Avram Davidson & Grania Davis (also a
Chesley nominee), FUTURES PAST by A.E. Van Vogt, TALES OF OLD EARTH by Michael Swanwick, the first edition TREASURY OF THE FANTASTIC
edited by David Sandner & Jacob Weisman, GRAVITY’S ANGELS by
Michael Swanwick, and OLYMPIC GAMES by Leslie What.

Cake produced by Effie Seiberg for Tachyon’s 20th anniversary party.

In May, Nancy Springer, herself, will become entwined with the logo following the publication of her new novel THE ODDLING PRINCE. 

For more info on THE RHINOCEROS WHO QUOTED NIETZSCHE AND OTHER ODD ACQUAINTANCES, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Michael Dashow

For more info on THE ODDLING PRINCE, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Brian Giberson

Design by Elizabeth Story