WORK: Kickstarter launched for the 1977 EPA Graphic Standards System reissue

New York based independent publishers Standards Manual have just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a reissue of the 1977 United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Graphic Standards System. The original manual was designed by Chermayeff & Geismar (now Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv). 

EPA logo by Chermayeff & Geismar, 1977.
The EPA Graphic Standards System reissue designed by Standards Manual.

The Environmental Protection Agency was set up in 1970 under the Nixon administration to help research, monitor and limit environmental damage. The agency had a broad reach and several different departments struggled to unify their message, because of a non-standartised design and communication strategy. That was until Ivan Chermayeff & Tom Geismar were brought in to design a graphic system for the EPA.

The reissue of the EPA Graphic Standards System will be designed by Jesse Reed and Hamish Smyth (co-founders of Standards Manual). The duo have carved a niche for themselves in the design world, having previously run successful crowdfunding campaigns for the American Revolution Bicentennial Standards Manual, the 1970 New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual and the 1975 NASA Graphic Standards Manual.

The EPA Graphic Standards System reissue will feature all the original content along with a foreword by Tom Geismar, an essay by Christopher Bonanos of New York Magazine and photographs from the EPA-commissioned Documerica Project. It will be a hardbound book with a silkscreen cover printed in 14 Pantone® colours, in two recycled paper stocks. The manual will come with a recycled board slipcase with a blind embossed EPA logo. 

Above: Photographs from the EPA-commissioned Documerica Project Images courtesy: EPA / U.S. National Archive

Part of the proceeds from the reissue will go towards Earthjustice’s conservation work and to the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts). 

CR contributor Michael Evamy discusses the phenomenon of Kickstarter funding reprints of identity manuals from a bygone age. Read here


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