Parks Canada Signage Manual
July 13th, 2007
Designer(s): Stewart and Morrison Ltd. and Jaques Guillon Designers Inc.
Client: Parks Canada, under the direction of Environmental Services Division, Engineering and Architecture Branch, Dept of Northern and Indian Affairs (originally)
Date: 1975
This book is the original Parks Canada Signage Manual from the Brown and Gold era that parallels, but is separate from the Canadian Government’s Federal Identity Program in the 1970s. Spending a large part of my summers as a youth in Riding Mountain National Park, I still remember this signage program very fondly from those years.
The book itself is a wonderful, very detailed study in Late International Modernism. Pictured here are a sampling of the pages from the guide. This book is easily the most prized in my personal library, but I’m not telling how I got it!
-Josh Dudych
Entry Filed under: Graphics
7 Comments Add your own
1. Jean Guillon | July 14th, 2007 at 02:18
Nice logos. One more Guilon on the planet :-)
Jean Guillon
2. Kevin Kimmett | July 16th, 2007 at 10:23
Ah, I remember the old signage from my days as a Scout. Good times!
3. Colin McKay | July 25th, 2007 at 13:39
I definitely recognize some of those signs from recent trips to Gatineau Park near Ottawa. They may have switched the colour from yellow to a calmer green, but the graphics are the same.
4. Kevan | November 29th, 2007 at 09:55
A deliciously wonderful artifact. I love the photos you took of the manual…and although you wouldn’t mention where you picked up your copy, I suspect I have a clue.
The signs themselves are a brilliant exercise in understatement. It’s exciting to see such rigorous care and foresight poured into our nation’s brand, through this signage program. Thanks for the post!
5. Ryan Bray | October 7th, 2008 at 19:23
I work for Park’s Canada in Banff National park, these signs, all still exist. Now that I see the publication date of this book, I know realize that the signs are much older then I am. Also the signs don’t look at good as these pictures do.
6. Pete | May 16th, 2009 at 01:39
Hi, I know that all the signage for Canada National Parks was available for download. Does anybody where you can find them? I feel as if I have already searched the whole internet to find them again.
7. Jaan Krusberg | May 25th, 2010 at 12:47
I was the designer in Environmental Services supervising the design consultants. Wally McCray, landscape architect, was the project manager. The designers at Stewart and Morrison Ltd. were Gerry Reilly and Hans Kleefeld. The designer at Jaques Guillon Designers Inc. was Ken Marsh.
I still have a couple of original manuals in A4 binders (when Canada went metric except for paper)
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