UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State Professor of Graphic Design Phil Choo in the College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School was recently invited to present an exhibition of his research work on U.S. National Parks titled “Mapping America's National Treasures: A Graphic Designer's Journey to Create a New Set of 63 Iconic National Park Stamps," at Seoul National University of Technology.

While Choo was not able to personally attend the October event, his “The Mighty 5” project, which features National Park Passport cancellation stamp designs for Utah’s five national parks, was on display. The goal of the exhibition, according to Choo, was to bring awareness to Koreans who have an interest in traveling to the United States about America’s national parks.

“Many Koreans who travel [to the United States] and are familiar with Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, but they have not discovered other beautiful parks in America yet,” Choo said.

Choo has been working on his self-funded National Park stamp project for 20 years and said his goal is to design 63 U.S. cancellation stamps for National Park Passports, representing the 63 parks in the United States. He has personally visited 59 of the parks so far.

According to Choo, collecting cancellation stamps in the National Park Passport are a large part of many national park visitor's culture and experience, which is something he noticed during his trips to various national parks. He said National Park visitors like to collect stamps and add them to their passports. From the lens of a graphic designer, he said he wanted to update the designs as many people keep the stamps as souvenirs.

In his redesigning of the stamps, Choo’s goal is to depict at least four main elements of each national park, highlighting key geographic features and ecosystems – sky, land, water – and the interaction between park visitors and the natural environment.

To make the cancellation stamps more memorable, Choo said, "My hope is for people to collect them as tangible keepsakes, serving as reminders of their experiences in the Parks."

During his creative process, Choo said that he stays at each national park for at least two days and tries to stay on the campground rather than in a hotel to get the full experience of the park.

“My design starts with my personal experience of the park,” he said. “I think about the sky, land, water and myself, and how I interact with it.”

Although visiting each national park can be time-consuming and quite costly, Choo said that the whole process has been a joy, and that he wants to complete the project before his retirement. After completing the full set of 63 stamps, Choo said he plans on donating the stamp designs to the U.S. National Park Service.