The First Birthplace Emblem was an idea of Jacques Tiziou for the Discovery STS-121 crewmembers and designed with the help of Catherine Lari. He is the Editor of JTNS (Jacques Tiziou News Service) in Washington DC . He graduated as an Aerospace Engineer, but after becoming a professional journalist. He has covered the Space Program since Sputnik 1 and first visited KSC and MSC in July 1962.
Catherine is responsible for Space Education for the French Paris School System. She is the creator, director and animator of the French "Club Apollo." She is presently in the US to cover the STS-121 mission and learn more about the US Space Program.
As he has done for many emblems since Apollo, and Skylab, Tiziou just copied the original crew patch and modified it. He made the emblem look more positive, with less black even if black is the color of Space. He drew a larger Space Shuttle Discovery, as seen after undocking from the ISS following a successful mission, ready to come back to Earth. He added atmospheric control flaps and what he thinks is the most important part of a Space Shuttle: A landing gear.
The names of the crewmembers were replaced by their actual birthplaces as mentioned in their NASA bios, not what they consider as their hometowns.