In May 1974, the U. S. government initiated the Federal Design Improvement Program in response to a growing awareness of design as an effective tool for achieving objectives. All aspects of federal design, including architecture, interior space planning, landscaping, and graphic design were upgraded under the program. The Graphics Improvement Program set out to improve the quality of visual communications and the ability of governmental agencies to communicate effectively to citizens. One of the most successful federal visual identification systems was the Unigrid system, developed in 1977 for the . The Unigrid unified the hundreds of informational folders used at about 350 different locations. The standardized format of the Unigrid enabled the publications staff to focus on achieving excellence in the development and presentation of pictorial and typographic information.