The WPA Federal Art Project produced over 2,000 screen-printed posters between 1935 and 1943, employing out-of-work artists to advertise national parks, public health, theatre, and civic programs. Constrained to 3–5 ink runs on uncoated stock, the designers developed a flat, geometric, silhouette-driven language that borrowed from Bauhaus and Soviet constructivism but remained distinctly American in its civic optimism.

This design system captures that workshop-printed urgency: deep navy and brick-red ink blocks, chunky condensed sans-serif lettering, bold figure/ground separation, and the slight textural imperfection of hand-pulled screen prints. Every element reads like it was designed to be understood across a subway platform.