Boston Harbor Islands “Grab & Go” Self-Guided Activities

DESIGN, ILLUSTRATION + STYLE GUIDE

To help more visitors explore the islands’ natural, cultural and historical highlights independently, Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park turned to Merry Perry Design to create a cohesive system for a series of self-guided activities. The “Pick Your Path Story Activities” and “Grab & Go Activity Guides” are tailored to youth groups (roughly ages 6-13) and their adult companions, such as schools, community programs, camps, and families.

Like the Pick Your Path activities, the Grab & Go activity guides’ design needed to be as flexible as possible: suitable for both at-home and professional printing, with cost-effective illustration and printing choices, and flexible templates with a style guide for successful adaptation by Islands partner organizations.

Eventually, there could be dozens of Grab & Go guides with a range of five different activity types on several hub islands. So an intuitive system for all activity themes, islands, and activity guidelines was developed along with the initial design of “Learn: Seek App” and “Learn: iNaturalist App” activity guides. To support visitors and park staff in making sense of all these variables at a glance, Merry recommended several practical features:

• Short names to brand and distinguish these guides from Pick Your Path, other island communications, and each other – The park group dubbed the guides appropriately, “Grab & Go.” Five activity themes – “Learn, Create, Play, Explore and Hike” – encompass self-guided projects, crafts, games, scavenger hunts and hikes.
• Activity details, nicknamed “The Scoop!” – Taking a cue from teachers’ lesson plans, these details are easy to scan on each guide’s title panel. They include island name, activity description, ages, time, and any materials or preparation needed.
• Visual coding by color and icon – The five activity themes (Learn, Create, Play, Explore and Hike) are easily identifiable by their corresponding accent color and illustrative icon in the title bar.

Inspiring a sense of discovery and creative play, the Grab & Go design springs from the visual elements of the Boston Harbor Islands brand, including the foundational color palette, typography and the logo’s softly rounded illustration and shapes. A balance of short chunks of text with visuals helps attract and guide young visitors, with plenty of friendly highlights, subheads and callouts that suggest “Reflect,” “Discuss” and “Tips & Tricks.” Playful line drawings of natural elements (sun, clouds, birds, and land-and-seascape) provide texture and a sense of place unique to the harbor islands.

[iNaturalist illustrations from iNaturalist/National Park Service]