They tapped me to design a visual identity for a new online park pass application NIC Federal was piloting in Acadia National Park. I had designed an initial logotype and mark, but after some internal discussion the original name could not be used. The concept was strong, though, so we kept it and used a the new name of Your Pass Now.
This visual identity is designed to be simple and bold. The general shape resembles that of a QR code scanner. A vibrant green is contrasted by solid black, giving it a lively, contemporary feeling.
The pass itself is pretty cool, too. They use QR codes and we developed a native mobile app for park rangers to validate the passes. In the event that no connectivity was available, a manual process was designed to validate the pass using various data fields to help prevent fraud.
This was a fun project and I applaud my team members on the NIC Federal team for delivering such a cool service in such a tight timeline. Now head over to NPS.gov and purchase an online park pass before your next visit!
Designing for civic and government organizations
Government and civic tech projects have their own constraints — accessibility requirements, public trust, broad audiences with competing needs. Patrick Iverson has designed visual identities for civic organizations including NIC Federal and New Mexico Interactive, bringing the same design discipline used in private-sector branding to work that serves the public.