There are a lot of commonalities between libraries and breweries. We both want to provide for the public; we have products people need; we are both experiencing a surge in popularity…oh, who am I kidding?  This post is about librarians who like to drink beer.

Sul Ross State University is a library full of new staff members, and we are trying our hardest to meet people on campus and to spread the word about how we can help them.  Deciding that this might go over even better if adult beverages were involved, we contacted Big Bend Brewing, our favorite craft beer out here, and asked what they thought about a night at the brewery.  They were super excited to work with librarians, and also wanted to take this opportunity to introduce the public to their new catering service, so I got right to work on an invitation for the big event.

Knowing that I wanted to make this invitation library-themed, I searched the web for other similar events out there, and found this example from the Denver Public Library.  I ran up to Tech Services, located a spare date due card to scan as a JPG, and opened up Publisher to create a first draft:

librewerydraft2

While it had all the elements (I’m in love with the “stamped” day and time), I just wasn’t convinced it was right.  That draft evolved into the one below, but I didn’t love the bold, difficult-to-read (but very important) words up top:

librewerydraft3

Finally, after a day of moving elements around and asking my coworkers and Veronica for suggestions, I came up with the invitation below:

librewery#

The main changes in this invitation are that the event now has a name (borrowed from the Narbeth Community Library’s 2012 event), and I used a better font and better placement to describe what the whole thing is about.  We are now busy printing up copies on cardstock to deliver to faculty and staff via campus mail.  I will follow up with an JPG in an email to everyone too.

I don’t even need to tell you how excited we librarians are about this event!  We’re hoping this becomes a regular thing, and we are considering upping the price for a community-wide fundraiser in the spring.  The Publisher versions of the invitation is available in the Librarian Design Share Google Drive.  Cheers!

 

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