21/02/2024
National Park Service They get us! They really get us!!!
For almost as long as there have been national parks, there have been some form of visitor brochures. In the early years, they came in a wide variety of formats, fonts, and folding methods that made it increasingly difficult to keep up with demand. As the National Park System grew, so did the need for more structured publications.
In 1977, modernist designer Massimo Vignelli, who won acclaim for New York subway signage and maps, was tasked with updating park brochures with a comprehensive graphic design system that standardized formatting and production. The National Park Service "unigrid" was born. Today, unigrid brochures are on the front lines of storytelling in the National Park Service.
Learn more about the history of the unigrid brochure at: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/hfc/a-brief-history-of-the-unigrid.htm
Do you collect park unigrids?
Image: Screenshot of a National Park Service post with text, “Bro, you want this pamphlet? “Brochure."
NPS History Collection Harpers Ferry Center
