Client
Van Alen Institute, and National Park Service
Project
Van Alen Institute, and National Park Service
Project
Promotional graphics for National Parks Now, a design competition for multidisciplinary teams of young professionals (i.e. filmmakers, landscape architects, historians, ecologists, sociologists). Participants were asked to develop strategies for reshaping the national parks' visitor experience.
The competition is a collaboration between the National Park Service and Van Alen Institute, and participants can apply for one of the four national park sites: Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park (NJ), Sagamore Hill National Historic Site (NY), Steamtown National Historic Site (PA), and Weir Farm National Historic Site (CT).
First briefing participating teams
Solution
The promotional materials play with the idea of a blueprint map showing graphics that can be perceived as directional graphics. Are they elements for a park, or more for an urban environment? The addition of the condensed, all caps, stencil typeface (designed in collaboration with Berton Hasebe) adds to the idea of bridging nature and urban life, one of the key design criteria for the participating competitors.
The promotional materials play with the idea of a blueprint map showing graphics that can be perceived as directional graphics. Are they elements for a park, or more for an urban environment? The addition of the condensed, all caps, stencil typeface (designed in collaboration with Berton Hasebe) adds to the idea of bridging nature and urban life, one of the key design criteria for the participating competitors.
Weir Farm National Historic Site, one of the participating National Parks.
The competition was a pilot program to see if the developed strategies could serve as guiding principles for similar size national parks in the United States. The six most promising strategies were published on the Van Alen Institute website under the name Best Ideas.
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