The Department of Energy promotes clean energy with funky retro posters

To get us to a better future, the government keeps looking to the past. Following in the footsteps of NASA, the Department of Energy has released its own set of WPA-inspired posters celebrating clean and alternative energy solutions.

The artwork is consistently colorful and beautiful across each of the eight posters, even if words like “Utility-Scale Photovoltaic Solar” aren’t quite as sexy as “Experience the mighty auroras of Jupiter.” What’s cool about the DOE’s posters, though, is that each one celebrates projects that were actually accomplished instead of serving as signposts for future missions like NASA’s. The posters all point to a different initiative in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was signed into law seven years ago and has since helped power a million homes annually. Most of the projects were energy-focused and, according to the DOE, were also either first-of-a-kind or among the nation’s largest.

Like NASA did with some of its posters, the DOE hired an outside design firm, and the high-touch results are rather striking. (Eagle-eyed viewers will also notice one bears a striking resemblance to the WPA poster for Old Faithful.) You can see all eight below, but they’re also available for download in high-resolution form on the DOE’s website.