Parks

by Brian Kelley, Hamish Smyth (Editor), Lyz Nagan-Powell (Contributor)

Parks, our second title with photographer Brian Kelley, is a collection of over 300 United States national park maps, ephemera, and brochures spanning over 100 years.

Part of an ongoing project, Kelley collects oft-overlooked objects within the Parks Service. The book showcases nearly a century of art, cartography, and printed materials in a compelling visual history of America’s national parks and evolving graphic design styles culminating in Massimo Vignelli’s iconic design system, the Unigrid.

Genres: Design, Travel, History, Nonfiction, Reference, Art, Photography

384 pages, Hardcover

Published September 1, 2019

Reviews

[David Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks for the awesome book Sophie! I think I should bring it down to Eleventh House, let you make mr a good cup of coffee, and the two of us do some serious thinking about where and when we can go trekking this year.

[John Helmon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful survey of pamphlets and maps from National Parks and monuments over the years. I learned about a design grid concept they introduced in the '70s that was revolutionary at the time.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful collection of US National Park Brochures — would loved to have seen more internal spreads.

Great resource for inspo. Fascinating to see the ebb and flow of design trends throughout history and how it mirrors today.

[James]

Although the maps and pamphlets reproduced here are very interesting, they are most just the covers - hardly any images of their inside maps, illustrations, photos etc which seems like a real missed opportunity.

[Erin M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous design book and so interesting to see the park brochures, maps and related literature over time. Perfect gift for design or national parks nerds.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This is more about a progression of graphic design than the actual parks. I am much more interested in the actual parks than the design, but I still enjoyed this collection.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice binding and the intro held my attention. The author really missed the mark on telling a story. There were some interesting NPS brochures over the years, but that was about it.