26 August 2014

Logo Design for Library Summer Palooza Event




After 25 years of hosting a Literary Festival event in October, the Alachua County Library District decided the time had come to integrate it into the Summer Reading Program and rebrand the newly appointed August event as the "Summer Reader Palooza," that celebrated the end of the Summer Reading program and kicked off the back-to-school season.

To initiate branding of this new event, the library required a new event identity. I wanted the mark to appeal to the age-appropriate audience of children, so I selected a playful yet easy to read display font and cheerful colour scheme. I also created the icon of a book and inset it into a modified clip art sun icon to provide an easily recognizable association to books and summer. 

I developed a few logo variations until I came up with four that worked well, then selected the one that looked like it would have the highest technical reproduction integrity, as well as what I hoped would have strongest potential for remaining fresh and have staying power — perhaps one that could last for another 25 years! The final mark is shown here in its two options, full colour and black/white. 

Final logo files were passed to the client for using on documents and publicity that they created. The only application of the new identity I used it on was a web banner posted on the library website, seen below.

Web banner ad used for library website.

06 August 2014

Integrated Library Literacy Collateral Re-Design

A variety of new and redesigned integrated marketing collateral materials for the Literacy
 office include 8.5x11 signs, quarter page handbills, recruitment cards and utility bill insert,
 a tri-fold brochure, a six-page tutor handbook, and a 24-page PowerPoint presentation.

In 2013 the Alachua County Library District hired a new literacy coordinator. I felt this was an opportune time to tackle the job of updating the literacy office's array of materials with a redesign so all collaterals were better integrated with one another. 

Previously designed items borrowed from each other but lost a sense of continuity when seen as a whole. This redesign would take the opportunity to maximize use of its primary visual image of a globe, simplify the colour palette from red, white and blue to shades of green with white, refine the typographical fonts and treatments, and to broaden the use of a simplified corporate brandmark.

I started with the most pressing of items needed, quarter page handbills that advertised the service to patrons in need, then additional ones used to recruit potential tutors. While the both the fronts and backs of these two-sided card stock items would look very similar, both would utilize different headlines geared toward their appropriate audience. Similarly, contact information on the backs of each would be adjusted to suit the appropriate reader. The response was so tremendous that I had to order second and third printings of the cards to keep up with demand as they disappeared from where they were distributed in libraries and around the county.

Next up was a redesign of the existing Literacy Office brochure. Both updated and new information were provided, so a new layout was created to arrange and display sections of text into shorter blocks for easy reading. About the same time that the brochure was being developed, a website blog icon was created based on the cover of the brochure which used a green band of colour with white text reversing out of it overlaid the green globe.

The same design solution for the Literacy Office brochure and blog icon was then employed in development of aTutor Handbook design. A fresh re-write of the six-page document text was matched with an equally refreshed new look and that would maintain the same typographical treatment from the brochure for strengthening brand continuity.

For tutor training, a 24-page PowerPoint presentation was created utilizing the same design elements and sensibilities. 

While tutor training was underway, agreements with existing and new tutoring sites required advertising of their locations and dates. One quarter-page handbill design was used both as a handbill as well as a utility bill insert. Other single and two-sided handbills and associated 8.5x11 inch signs for posting were produced in both English and Spanish language to better serve both speaking populations. 

Lastly (for the time-being), a point of purchase sign was created for fundraising during one of the local Friends of the Library book sales. Placement of the sign at a location outside of the library where book lovers and supporters of the library mission congregated was a great idea and hopefully produced measurable results for the library's literacy program.


Projects included:
200 internally printed tutor recruitment cards 
+ a revised printing of 200
400 internally printed reading help cards 
+ additional reprints of 400, 600, & 5000
55 internally printed literacy office brochures 
2500 vendor printed literacy office brochures
150 internally printed six-page tutor handbooks
One local utility bill insert advert .pdf
One library Website Blog Icon .jpg
24-page tutor training PowerPoint presentation
40 Two-sided English / Spanish quarter-page handbills
11 New classes 8.5x11 inch Spanish version sign
11 New classes 8.5x11 inch English version sign
One "Help Promote Literacy" 8.5x11 inch sign .pdf

Stay tuned, because more marketing opportunities are continually being explored, and along with them, additional design projects.