Last year, the United States Postal Service underwent a rebranding. Photo: GrandArmy
Last year, the United States Postal Service underwent a rebranding.
Photo: GrandArmy
New York-based creative agency GrandArmy crafted a new look for the post office's in-store signage and packaging. To cut down on waiting time, the new signs clarified the services being offered. Photo: GrandArmy
New York-based creative agency GrandArmy crafted a new look for the post office's in-store signage and packaging. To cut down on waiting time, the new signs clarified the services being offered.
Photo: GrandArmy
GrandArmy took cues from Massimo Vignelli's New York City subway signage. To mimic that consistency, each each USPS sign has a red band at the top, a white header with big type below, and then a simple menu of text. Photo: GrandArmy
GrandArmy took cues from Massimo Vignelli's New York City subway signage. To mimic that consistency, each each USPS sign has a red band at the top, a white header with big type below, and then a simple menu of text.
Photo: GrandArmy
GrandArmy also wanted to inject some pride back into the storied institution. However, USPS didn't adopt these posters... Photo: GrandArmy
GrandArmy also wanted to inject some pride back into the storied institution. However, USPS didn't adopt these posters...
Photo: GrandArmy
...or this app. (Which wasn't actually commissioned, but GrandArmy created it anyway.) Photo: GrandArmy
...or this app. (Which wasn't actually commissioned, but GrandArmy created it anyway.)
Photo: GrandArmy
Another discrepancy between GrandArmy's work and the final USPS product are the boxes. When the rebranding finally rolled out, the USPS used an altered version of GrandArmy's design. Photo: GrandArmy
Another discrepancy between GrandArmy's work and the final USPS product are the boxes. When the rebranding finally rolled out, the USPS used an altered version of GrandArmy's design.
Photo: GrandArmy
This version sizes down the typography, which de-emphasizes the delivery speed and thus the function of the box. "It’s like they put it through a filter and it’s not too considered,” says GrandArmy cofounder Eric Collins. Photo: GrandArmy
This version sizes down the typography, which de-emphasizes the delivery speed and thus the function of the box. "It’s like they put it through a filter and it’s not too considered,” says GrandArmy cofounder Eric Collins.
Photo: GrandArmy
The post office has an awful reputation. Seriously: On Seinfeld, Newman works there. The United States Postal Service is aware of this, which is likely one reason why they commissioned New York-based creative agency GrandArmy to redesign their signage and packaging last year. Most of the work (“90 percent,” says GrandArmy co-founder Eric Collins) was implemented across the postal service’s 31,000 locations last August, but it wasn’t until last week that the designers published the full breadth of their work online.
When GrandArmy took on the project, they quickly learned that of the post office’s many imperfections, long lines are the worst offender. “When people go to the post office they were just there too long, because they couldn’t figure out what they needed to do,” Collins says. “There’s a lot of people standing in line for a half hour, for the teller to just say, ‘Yeah, just drop that in a slot over there.’ ”
This was a product of shoddy wayfinding. At the time, the post office’s signage did a few things to waste customers’ time: It included photos of products—like mailers and boxes—that sat nearby, in real life, for purchase. “Those were completely silly. You just turn your head to the left, and the boxes are there,” Collins says. GrandArmy ditched the pictures. The post office also used jargon for its mailing options (“Priority,” “Express”) that didn’t actually explain what the service does, meaning customers likely had more questions after reading a menu-board than they did beforehand. GrandArmy replaced what Collins calls “all these arcane names” with to-the-point descriptions like, “overnight” or “1-3 days” for deliveries.
Photo: GrandArmy
Design Cues From the Masters
After cleaning up some of that visual and lexical debris, Collins says the goal was to prevent customers from going through orientation each time they reached a new sign. For this, GrandArmy studied airport wayfinding (in particular, the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands, a contemporary design classic) and the New York City subway signage. Massimo Vignelli’s famous design works so well, as Collins sees it, because the hierarchy of information is so consistent: “The largest, clearest information is the most relevant: Where are you, and where are you trying to go?”
That’s why each USPS sign has a red band at the top, a white header with big type below, and then a simple menu of text. That consistency is crucial for budget-strapped post offices that all have different layouts, but no funds to remodel the store. The USPS can handle “paper and paint,” updates, meaning “they can change anything that’s printed, and they can paint the store, but they can’t change the footprint,” Collins says. The graphics alone can guide customers through any given store.
One GrandArmy design, however, didn’t end up in post offices. They also revamped the postal service’s envelopes and boxes—one of the core products offered by the USPS. But when the rebranding finally rolled out, the USPS used an altered version of GrandArmy’s box design. It sizes down the typography, which de-emphasizes the delivery speed and thus the function of the box. It also killed one bold addition GrandArmy made: a printed etching of an eagle, added as a patriotic nod to the heritage of the post office. “It’s like they put it through a filter and it’s not too considered,” Collins says. “When you have everything so starkly minimalist, everything becomes that much more important. When the whole system hinges on three colors and two fonts, and the relationship between, all these decisions become totally critical.”
Collins says he doesn’t know why the USPS adjusted their designs. It could have been budgetary, or to suit postal service worker’s preferred order of operations, but because the USPS didn’t address the matter with GrandArmy until the after the fact, it’s unclear. It’s like Newman is running the place, or something.
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