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Above diagram shows a large range of collaterals used to promote the celebration.
Descriptions of numbered itemization portion appears at end of this blog entry. |
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| The ALA collaterals sold for promotional purposes. |
October 21-27 marks the nationally celebrated Friends of the Library Appreciation Week. The American Library Association describes it as: "Friends of Libraries groups have their very own national week of celebration! ALTAFF will coordinate the seventh annual National Friends of Libraries Week Oct. 21-27, 2012. The celebration offers a two-fold opportunity to celebrate Friends. Use the time to creatively promote your group in the community, to raise awareness, and to promote membership. This is also an excellent opportunity for your library and Board of Trustees to recognize the Friends for their help and support of the library." You can read more about the celebration here: http://www.ala.org/united/events_conferences/folweek.
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| Event identity mark. |
The ALA offered libraries nation-wide the opportunity to purchase a package of pre-designed promotional marketing materials for libraries to use to promote the national celebration. For the Alachua County Library District, however, the decision was made to develop their own in order to focus more intimately on its own local FOL group. This would require an entirely different design direction.
The first task was to develop an identity mark for the celebration. The design elements of the mark would become the base design that would drive additional works required for communications and promotion. I had only a couple of hours to explore potential solutions because we already knew we wanted to order pens and wearable buttons to pass out as souvenirs. Production time would take about two weeks and we were already up against that deadline.
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An 8.5x11 inch sign demonstrates the primary design
elements used throughout the promotional campaign. |
My initial concept was influenced by the notion that this was a national American celebration, so naturally I would be looking to develop something with a red, white, and blue sensibility to it. Additionally, the fact that a presidential election was in high gear at this same time also played into my thinking. I was inspired by the classic "I LIKE IKE" convention button and created one that read "I LIKE FOL." Everything about the button—including the typography— looked the same except the letters were changed.
Unfortunately, I was asked to come up with a new concept, so, faced with the design of a button first that had content requirements of using our local Friends of the Library logo along with the phrase "Celebrate Our Friends of the Library with Us!" I placed the existing FOL logo under a circular arch that went from one side of the tree to the other. Reversed out of the arch was the required phrase, and as as the arching circle continued under the tree, I added three hearts to fill in the empty space below the FOL logo. This design was accepted and became the base identity that would be applied to other marketing collaterals.
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A 45x45 inch large format display poster is flanked by secondary
support visuals of silhouette books and faux polaroids. |
Two other pieces needed to be quickly made: an 8.5x11 and a 11x17 sign that would contain varying messages depending on their use. I needed another visual element to compliment the approved identity. I remembered I had used the silhouette of an open book on monthly event calendars for a while, but found the curve of the pages not to my liking, so I created a new book silhouette and used that shape to contain reversed out text of the required messages.
This silhouette would also become a common design element used on many of the collaterals required to promote the week of celebration, such as decorative elements that contained quotes by famous people, FOL factoids, or library messages.
I wanted the visual appearance of the signs to both have a classic, established quality to them as well as a modern, common quality. To achieve this, I combined an Adobe Garamond italic and small cap style along with an Arial font family mix.
Requests for primary and support design projects began rolling in. Signs, posters, print and online advertisements, event decorations, certificates, a multi-paged binded presentation booklet, even a slide show. In all, I had over 30 unique items to create within in three weeks—all the while balancing those creations with other promotional projects in the works. The diagram at the top of this blog entry demonstrates the wide range of projects undertaken for this event; a list of those projects are detailed by type and quantity printed at the end of this entry.
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Thank you notes and photos of scholarship recipients
were displayed on large format posters as well as
on pages of bound presentation booklets. |
Each branch library was supplied with copies of the 8.5x11 and 11x17 inch signs, as well as book silhouettes containing a variety of quotes. They used them in any way they wanted, along with any additional elements they desired to create their own larger posters and bulletin board displays. Photographs of these were then taken to collate together into a bound booklet to be presented to FOL members.
In addition to the library branch display photos, notes of thanks from recipients of scholarships provided by the FOL were also combined together to add pages to the presentation booklet. These same notes, along with photos of the respective recipients were then repurposed into three large posters that would hang on the wall at a midday event at the event for the public and invited guests to attend.
The booklet would also contain photos representing some of the many library projects the FOL supported, as well as a certificate of appreciation. This same certificate would be printed to present to the library's four different FOL organizations, as well as copies made for each branch library to display.
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A diorama for Technical Services thanked FOL
for creating and supporting a popular CD/DVD
movie collection, and in doing so became a
"show stopper" in its own right. |
Perhaps the most ambitious design project was a diorama, conceived by Technical Services Librarian Linda Norris, who envisioned turning a simple card board box into a cinema to highlight her department's appreciation for FOL contributions and support towards creation of the library's very popular movie CD/DVD collection.
Linda and I worked a few minutes here and there during the next two weeks to fabricate the vision. I started first with sourcing and printing images of brick walls, asphalt, tile floors, theatre screens and curtains, threatre chairs, and scanned/modified a retro photograph of moviegoers wearing 3-D glasses to tape to the surface of the box. Next, a portion of the back of the box was cut away to allow the back image of the movie screen to be illuminated from behind by a flashlight. Old CDs, lamination film, and cardboard "frames" were used to create panels to display the CDs as "Now Showing" and "Coming Soon" attractions. A chandelier was fashioned out of earrings, crowd control ropes were made out of red rope and cotter pins, and even a red carpet over the tile entryway floor added touches of sophistication to the environment. Full height photos of Linda and a few of her colleagues were taken, printed at a reduced scale, taped to poster board, then cut out to become standing figurines that could be placed anywhere around the diorama. And lastly, faux commonly phrased industry quotes and attributions about moviegoing were superimposed over the backs of audience chairs to reflect positive sentiments about the FOL.
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| Technical Services Librarian Linda Norris stands with her diorama. |
I had been told even before the diorama had left the design department to be viewed by a greater audience that it had become quite the talk of the library among staff members. Even the library director caught a sneak peek of it and suggested that it be set on display somewhere after the FOL Appreciation Event. For everyone who saw it, I hope they all enjoyed it—if not at the October 21 Friends of the Library Appreciation Event, then perhaps wherever the diorama might travel to on its next stop of what could potentially become a tour of show stops all its own.
The Tally (quantity printed):
01. Invitation/Handbill (800)
02. Bookmark (2,000)
03. 8.5x11 Inch Signs (16)
04. Cake Top Image (1)
05. Event Program (150)
06. Home Page Website Banner Ad (1)
07. 10x10.5 Inch Print Advert (1)
08. 10x10.5 Inch Print Advert Table Top Sign (2)
09. 4x4 Foot Partnership Branch Library Display Poster (1)
10. 21x28 Inch Lobby Poster
11. 48x48 Inch Podium Display Poster (1)
12. Website Blog Icon(1)
13. Wearable 2 Inch Button (1)
14. 7x2 Inch Colour Print Advert (1)
15. 11x17 Inch Signs (14)
16. Presentation Booklet Binder (32 pages each;
23 booklets printed in-house, 250 printed via outside vendor)
17. 16x20 Inch Scholarship Thank You Poster (1)
18. Gainesville FOL Certificates (12)
19. Other Municipality FOL Certificates (3)
20. 35x43 Inch Scholarship Thank You Posters (2)
21. 3.25x3.75 Inch Black/White Print Advert (1)
22. Tech Services Cinema Diorama (1 box, 13+ images)
23. 45x45 Inch Headquarters Library Publicity Display Poster (1)
24. Table Top Wire Decoration Polaroids (8)
25. 8.5x11 Inch Book Silhouette Quotes (5)
26. PowerPoint Slideshow Pages (12)
27. Decorative Book Hang Tags (12)
28. Book Decoration Factoids (144)
Not shown:
Website Blog Page Image (1)
Scholarship Thank You Table Toppers (3)
Writing Pen
Oh, and don't forget that at the same time all this was being done, I was also working on an additional 57 projects from October 1 to October 19!
