Black History Month 2015 Library Marketing Designs

Library website banner ads for general theme events (top) and "Outside the Book" event series (bottom).

Each year the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) selects a theme for celebrating Black History. Based in Washington, DC, the organization has a website that displays its complete list of annual themes and provides information relating to its organization (see www.asalh.org). When I begin my annual Black History Month project for my library client, the ASALH is my go-to place for determining what the national theme is so I can develop imagery compatible to it. 

For 2015, the national theme was "A Century of Black Life, History, and Culture." The organization provided a single text page to speak on the theme, with the only visual offered being a black/white image of ASALH founder, Carter G. Woodson superimposed onto a parchment background. With this single image serving as a launching pad for my own creative project direction, I set out to develop marketing visuals for my library client to compliment the national theme set by the ASALH. 

Project: Alachua County Library District Black History Month Identity and Promotional Materials.

Brief: Establish a visual identity mark and develop integrated print and digital media marketing collaterals to promote the library's Black History Month events.

Required collaterals (and printed quantities):
General collaterals:
Theme logo, with element variations and in both colour and black/white formats (4)
8.5x11 inch event flyer front/back (400)
Library website banner ad (1)
Library website blog icon (1)
TV broadcast public service announcement (1)
Magazine print ad (1)
Newspaper print ad (1)

Resulting theme identity design.

Small publication print ad (1)
21x28 inch display poster (6)
116x68 inch large format display poster (1)
LIbrary newsletter 8x11 inch page (1)

Black History Month Thinking Out of the Book series events collaterals:
11x8.5 inch sign (10)
17x1 inch sign (10)
Half page handbill (75)
Library website banner ad (1)

Production notes: I already had an image of a parchment background that I could use. What I needed was something to give a little reference to the human component of the identity. I first explored illustration and photographic detail images of skin, however I still felt like I wanted something more recognizable, so I sourced for a face that I could use and finally settled on a purchased stock image I could crop tightly in on. I didn't want viewers to concentrate on a specific person, so I cropped in tightly on the face and reduced the area it took up so that the theme name would be the dominate visual element. 

Although the number "100" was not part of the official title, I added it to the theme identity for more visual impact, as well as to communicate faster and reinforce the words "a century." Typeface used on the identity was Headliner No.45 for a bold and slightly distressed appearance. URWEgyptienneTMed used for the ampersand because one was not included in the Headliner No.45 font family. Headliner No.45 was also used throughout the design collaterals as the display font. Body text used on collaterals was either from the Adobe Arial or Adobe Garamond Pro family set, both standard typefaces that are part of the ACLD corporate identity standards. 

Theme identity development began in October and was presented for review in November. What resulted was a four-item set of theme identity marks that could be used in a variety of ways. Specific collaterals were developed as content was delivered by project stakeholders. 

 Four colour and black/white variations of the identity with and without the background image.

Website blog icon

Left and center: 8.5x11 inch flyer front and back. Right: newsletter page.

TV broadcast public service announcement (PSA).

Half page handbills, and both 11x8.5 and 17x11 inch sign formats all used the same design.