Unigrid Design Specifications: National Park Service Informational Folder Program
A two-sided broadside that specifies the Unigrid System, the standard layout and production scheme for National Park Service site folders, based on an evaluative analysis of NPS folders by consulting designer Massimo Vignelli.
What it is
A two-sided broadside that specifies the Unigrid System, the standard layout and production scheme for National Park Service site folders, based on an evaluative analysis of NPS folders by consulting designer Massimo Vignelli. Every folder is cut from one 70-lb dull coated paper in two sheet sizes, folds to a 99 by 210 mm panel, and comes in 10 basic formats, A1 to A6 and B1 to B6, all segments of the B6 sheet with its 12 panels a side. Rules follow for each component: a black title bar with the park name in 60 or 42 point Helvetica Medium, justified text in 8/10 or 9/10 Helvetica, 25 point black bars, 24 standard colors, maps kept apart from text, and three ways to handle pictures. The reverse argues that a folder is a broadside, not a book, and gives five steps for setting a folder's Design Platform.
Why read it now
Two ideas outlast the print specs. First, fix the frame and free the content: the black title bar works as the logotype for the whole series, while pictures and maps change with every park. Park Service folders still carry that black band, the best evidence that it works. Second, decide the ratio of parts before any design: park staff and designers agree what share of space goes to map, text and pictures, and list components in order of importance. That discipline carries straight into web pages and decks. The claim that users open folders quickly and ignore panel sequence is an observation, not a test, though it fits how people scan print and screens. What has dated: Helvetica as the answer to everything, acetate grid overlays, pica and point measurement, and named PMS inks. The Park Service itself later moved its type to NPS Rawlinson and Frutiger, as the 2006 sign brochure in this collection shows. Use: before designing a brochure, menu or landing page, write the five-step Design Platform: likely use, components in order of importance, percentage of space for each, rough dummy, then content.
Passages worth keeping
The Unigrid System solves two primary problems of folder planning. First, it organizes the editorial and graphic components within a format.
النظام يعالج مشكلتين في تخطيط المطويات، أولاهما تنظيم النص والعناصر البصرية داخل الشكل المختار، والثانية كما يذكر النص بعدها تحديد طريقة الطباعة.
No format in the Unigrid System requires any alteration in size of type, maps, or illustrations. Small formats are not miniatures of larger formats.
حجم الخط والخرائط والرسوم ثابت في كل الأشكال، فالمطوية الصغيرة ليست نسخة مصغرة من الكبيرة، بل تحمل محتوى أقل بالحجم نفسه.
In practice, the title bar assumes the quality of a logotype for the folder program.
شريط العنوان يصير عمليًا شعارًا لبرنامج المطويات كله، ولذلك لا يُعدل شكله ولا يُطبع بلون آخر.
The purpose is to avoid those tiresome arrangements and hodge-podge effects that are the enemy of good layout and the death of thought.
النصوص القصيرة ذات الأقسام الواضحة هدفها تجنب الترتيب المزدحم العشوائي الذي يفسد التصميم ويقتل التفكير.
A park folder is not a book but a functioning site reference. It is much like a chart or map, to be opened as circumstances require.
المطوية ليست كتابًا يُقرأ صفحة بعد صفحة، بل مرجع ميداني يُفتح عند الحاجة مثل الخريطة.
What it teaches best
Read the original npshistory.com
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