Spending the summer as Visual Media Intern for the National Park Service in Yellowstone was special to me in so many ways. I was able to execute a wide range of projects while working at the Albright Visitor Center in Mammoth, WY. In a summer of record visitation at national parks across the country, I was ecstatic to learn how to reach the millions of people that stream through Yellowstone entrances each year.

My work relationship with my original supervisor, Dave Krueger, has continued beyond the original Yellowstone internship. As our careers progressed, he has pulled me in to assist with other NPS assignments, such as this one.

ELK SAFETY PANELS

This project allowed me to update the elk education panels in front of the Albright Visitor Center, converting them into elk safety panels. Each year Mammoth draws herds of elk, and visitors and park employees alike often have dangerous encounters with them in the spring and fall. I navigated the NPS graphic identity grid to produce panels that were both informative and engaging. These panels are currently visible in front of the Albright Visitor Center as of 2022.

Swipe below for before and after!

TRIP DAY THURSDAY

When a new social media series was needed at the beginning of June, I utilized my public relations skills to create, plan, and monitor #TripDayThursday all the way through its run this summer. Each week, I highlighted specific features on park road segments as a virtual road trip. I updated a basic park map as a visual aid to viewers, and I added a personally illustrated graphic to tie in with each week's features. In both Yellowstone's June and July social media reports, my posts were within the top three posts for engagement on Facebook, and the number one post of both months for engagement on Instagram! You can check out my work on both Instagram and Facebook, @yellowstonenps and @YellowstoneNPS.

FISHING BRIDGE MUSEUM

I wasn't able to see the results of this project for myself until summer of 2023!

YNP’s natural history museum on Yellowstone Lake was recently renovated, and the museum exhibits, all based around Yellowstone's native bird species, needed an overhaul.

During my internship, I created a series of graphics that were used to deferentiate each bird's diet, habitat, nest, and clutch size. They were on every placard in the museum.

FORT YELLOWSTONE PANELS

This project was an extensive redesign of nine wayside panels that make up the Fort Yellowstone Trail in Mammoth Hot Springs, WY.

These panels detail the history of the park's headquarters here in Mammoth, dating back to the early 1900s when the US army occupied Yellowstone. With an old fashioned sepia approach and a NPS Graphic Identity system to follow, this task took a surprising amount of time and flexibility to conquer.

These panels are currently visible along the Fort Yellowstone trail as of 2022, blending well with the colors of the surrounding architecture.

JUNIOR RANGER WINTER ACTIVITY BOOKLET

Junior Ranger programs at national parks have become increasingly popular, as these activities provide an easy way for parents to entertain children on long car rides. It gives children a glimpse into what makes each park so special, with the reward of newfound knowledge about the park and a patch if a child completes the booklet.

I had the opportunity to completely redesign the layout and illustrations for Yellowstone's Winter Junior Ranger Booklet. I was able to apply my understanding of readability to rework the flow of these activities, making them easy for kids to grasp on their own. 

YELLOWSTONE ENTRANCE HANDOUTS

These coloring pages paved the way last year for this internship (check out the full story here!), so now having the NPS official logo across the top and having them handed out at the park entrances in summers of record visitation (reaching ~4.86 million summer 2021!) is very special to me. 

MISC PROJECTS

June 2021 - A graphic I designed for a Washington Support Office (US National Park Service) meeting with Congress

July 2021 - Redesigned layout and graphics for an instructional pamphlet to meet ADA guidelines, which instructs those accompanying visitors with visual impairment on how to operate the Durateq device and how to navigate around the Albright Visitor Center.

August 2021 - Illustrated page for an online Junior Ranger program where kids will circle in green which visitors are following park rules; in red which visitors are not.