National Parks WPA Style Surf Spot Poster Series

About this Series

This series of surf spot posters draws its inspiration from the WPA-commissioned screen printed posters for the National Parks and a variety of other projects.

There is something truly iconic about these posters – the fonts, the colors, the compositions. I really like them.

And it was the park’s posters that have such an especially cool essence about them. The story of these posters is interesting in its own right. You can read more about that and get yourself some of the classics as well as some modern originals made for the National Parks around the country over at Ranger Doug’s Enterprises.

The original posters created for the National Parks in the 1930s-40s as well as the new ones created by Ranger Doug Enterprises have this tremendous ability to not only celebrate and capture the beauty of the places they represent, but also stand alone as pieces of art that are pretty enjoyable to admire.

Since the originals were screen printed and prepared by hand, there were some limiting factors as to what could be reproduced in terms of colors and details of the designs. The artists and printers had to figure out how to capture the look and feel of the landscapes they were recreating with only a handful of colors. The result was some really interesting color combinations and compositions that still hold up today.

Considering I spend more time in the water than the National Parks, I felt that the ocean and surf spots around the world deserved some of this WPA-style treatment too.

Just like the National Parks, the surf spots and our coastlines deserve to be protected, respected, enjoyed, and admired.

When you spend a lot of time surfing and around the ocean, you can forget that there’s a whole lot of natural (and some man-made) beauty all around you. This series aims to serve as a reminder to that.

Next time you’re at the beach, take a minute to look around and take it all in.

And now, when you’re at home, you can hang a few of your favorite spots on your wall and do the same.

Stay tuned for more to come and Enjoy!

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