EPA Environmental Protection Agency: Graphic Standards System

The EPA Graphic Standards System is one of the finest examples of a standards manual ever created. The modular and flexible system devised raised the standard for public design in the United States.

The book features a foreword by Tom Geismar, introduction by Steff Geissbühler, an essay by Christopher Bonanos, scans of the original manual (from Geissbühler’s personal copy), and 48 pages of photographs from the EPA-commissioned Documerica project (1970–1977).

Copyright: United States Environmental Protection Agency Graphic Standards System © United States Environmental Protection Agency.

While EPA is the source of the Manual, the publication and distribution of the United States Environmental Protection Agency Graphic Standards System is not sponsored or endorsed by EPA and is an independent project undertaken in an effort to preserve and disseminate an archival record of graphic design from the era.

All images of the United States Environmental Protection Agency Graphic Standards System have been scanned from the private collection of Steff Geissbühler and Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv.

Credits:
Foreword by Tom Geismar
Introduction by Steff Geissbühler
Essay by Christopher Bonanos
Book photography by Brian Kelley
Created by Jesse Reed & Hamish Smyth
Published by Standards Manual, 2017