Library Events for Black History Month 2012

The large format alcove display poster adds an interactive element,
asking viewers to participate by sharing their dream and what efforts
they may be taking to make their dream a reality.

It may be December, but in my design department it is already February. Black History Month promotions to be more concise. The Alachua County Library District puts great effort into planning as far as three to six months in advance for all of its scheduled events, so when work requests started coming in December for delivery of Black History Month promotional collaterals in January, I was a designer behind the eight ball. I hadn't had but scant moments to even think about more immediate projects that kept flowing in on a daily basis, let alone something as far away as two months. Fortunately, I had done some preliminary concept thinking way back in October, so I did have a general message I was interested to pursue.

So with renewed energy I began sourcing images, looking to find something fresh and new that didn't look or act too much like my previous year's Black History Month visual theme ( http://librarygraphicdesign.blogspot.com/2011/01/black-history-month-flyer.html ). That year's theme employed the use of a "history quilt." Many viewers of that display say they loved it and some even wanted to see it again, but I wouldn't have it. I find it boring to repeat the same solution twice in a row, and to me it also implies a certain lack of interest when we use the same visual solution over and over again. At least skip a year to use a previously used solution—preferably more—I say.

During my sourcing for images, some great creative commons shots of the Dr. Martin Luther King memorial in Washington, DC turned up that I thought had a wonderful bold, graphic quality to them. I liked the power of the simple image I selected and thought that because the memorial site had been recently opened during the past summer, this would be the most timely opportunity to use an image of the memorial.

The library's web site banner ad.

I began working with my largest publicity project, our 118x72 inch alcove display. It would require some combination of large format visual, a message to encourage viewer interactive participation, and an instrument to deliver that action. My earliest language concept was to communicate something beyond simply having "a dream" that the civil rights often referred to.

I was interested in how people have gone beyond the dream to make it a reality...or to challenge them into action by reminding them that while it's fine to dream, it takes action to get things done. Thus, I settled on the language of the headline: "Make the Dream Real" followed by the challenger subhead: "A Dream Worth Having is a Reality Worth Working On." Following behind the subhead were images of some key events and portraits of people who used action to move the dream forward.

Additional language could then be added to specific collaterals, such as the simple message on our TV public service announcement (PSA) to look for the library's Black History Month events listed on our website.

The TV public service announcement does a good job in providing
essential information for viewers to find out more about library
activities related to the celebration of Black History month.

For the alcove display, the interactive feature was to present a second headline inviting viewers to share with the library what their personal dream was and—if applicable—what actions they were taking to make their dream a reality. The vehicle for delivering that message was proposed to be a registry book they could use to write in, much like one would use to sign in as a guest to an event or a business. A book would also lend itself well as a honored place of permanence for their written record, as opposed to, say, Post-It notes.

Once an entry was entered into the registry book, it could then be shared both by allowing other visitors to read through the book pages, as well as online, where the same entries would be posted to update a blog on the conversation. The library's Facebook could also serve as a location to pose the same question and get replies that could also be assimilated into the blog report.

Black History Month collaterals included (and continue to evolve):

1 large format display poster

1 web banner ad

1 web site blog icon

1 TV public service ad (PSA)
1 lobby TV image ad

200 8.5x11 inch fliers that listed events and programs district-wide for all the branch libraries

X number of handbills for additional specific events certain to come!
1 youth services bookshelf A-frame topper

Front side of an 8.5x11 inch flyer that lists library district-wide events.

Back side of an 8.5x11 inch flyer that lists library district-wide events.