February, A Banner Month

Two banners produced for Millhopper Branch Library.

February was a banner month, so to speak. One librarian from the Millhopper branch library wanted to create a banner to include as part of a display she was developing for Black History Month. The words "Black History is..." was all that she needed written on it and asked that I make it about 15 feet long by 1 foot deep. She said the area it would be displayed may be a little little dark, so using a bright colour might be a wise choice. The rest was up to me. 

I went through my clip art and selected a simple black/white vector graphic banner, intensified an image of a wood or parchment surface in photoshop to give it a golden appearance--which I hoped would stand out from a distance--and imported it into the center panel of the banner. I then coloured the other areas of the banner to compliment the center panel, printed, and shipped it out. 

When the librarian saw it, she sent me an email: "I love everything about that banner you sent me. I wouldn’t change a thing. It’s just what I need. You must be psychic because I was planning on using gold ribbons for my display. It will fit perfectly! Thank you so much."

Fortunately for me, it appears my ESP was strong that day.

Another Millhopper librarian requested a banner about the same time. This one was to use as part of a display to highlight winners of the 2011 YALSA competition. I didn't want to use the same banner shape I had just used on the first banner, so I sourced for and selected another black/white vector banner that was less straight and angular. I typed the required words into the banner using the same curvature as the banner itself. Not knowing much about the awards which included six different competitions, I sourced for images of the awards themselves and worked them into a graphic below the banner that included the name of each competition and what they were for. It turned out to be perfect for what was needed, both in terms of information and dimensions.

About the same time as I was producing these banners, another banner request came in, this time to create a "going away" banner for one of the employees that was soon to be deployed by the army out to the middle east. I took the same banner as the one used for YALSA and imported a camouflage image into it. It looked good, but the printer couldn't handle it, so I had to go back to using a solid colour in it. I added some stars to give a nod to the military, and it did it's own duty. Three banners up, three banners down.

At the end of February, I drove to  the Millhopper branch to see the banners in their final environment and share an image of them with you below.