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Signs About Sound

A couple of weeks ago we asked for submissions about sound, and you delivered! We received three sound-specific submissions, all of which take a different design approach. It’s worth noting that in spite of these differences, the first two of our featured submissions make use of the red, yellow, green color scheme to denote acceptable noise levels within the library. The last, designed for digital signage, uses large eye-catching text and simple icons to get the message across.

The first submission is from Brenda Sevigny-Killen at the Bennett D. Katz Library – University of Maine at Augusta.

Sign that reads "Silent Zone" in a library.

Brenda had this to say about her signs:

After our library greatly deaccessioned our reference materials, we opened up space for collaborative study areas with rolling whiteboards, chairs & tables, and comfort seating.  To encourage collaborative use of this new space, staff designed signs to promote the new area.  We also designed a sign for the quiet area since the multiple tables for 6 falsely encouraged noisy collaboration. There are times when we have to redirect groups to the collaborative zone so this space remains sacred for silent study. This project has been hugely successful and we now find we need much more collaborative space as more and more students find sanctity and camaraderie within the library walls.  Another happy side effect is getting to know more of our students and subtly infusing a atmosphere of support, care, and staff dedication which we hope contributes to their success.

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Brenda’s posters were designed in Publisher and are available in our Google Drive.

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Erin McCoy at Massasoit Community College in Brockton, Massachusetts submitted designs that she created in Canva.

I was inspired by a recent conversation on a list serve to take a look at signs for “sound expectations” – I like the one in the google drive, so I decided to riff on it in Canva for those of us without Adobes or Publisher skills.

Our library is one big room, that is square, so it’s hard to place signage and to communicate where the different zones are, so we’ll see how this goes!

 

 

Kudos to Erin for tackling the challenge of signage for the one-room library layout! You can find the complete set of Erin’s signage on the Librarian Design Share Google Drive.

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Our final submission is from Lauri Miller at the Paul & Harriett Mack Library in Bethlehem, PA. Lauri created her sign through Google Slides and used icons from one of my favorite resources, The Noun Project.

Here is my submission about sound levels in the library. I created it in Google Slides which feeds the digital sign in our lobby. The sign flips between slides, so I tried to keep it brief, understandable, and eye catching the foot traffic in and out of the library.  The cell phone icon is by Creative Stall, and the earbud icon is by Erman Tutan. Both are from nounproject.com.

cell phones on silent signage

Thanks to Brenda, Erin, and Lauri for their submissions. Remember, you can submit your own work to feature or request feedback at any time. All submitted work will be published on this site under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.

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Flyers: Our Bread and Butter

April and I started our foray into graphic design for libraries designing humble flyers. We wanted to share information with our community about library events, hours, policies, and practices. Today’s post, the final Librarian Design Share post, brings us back to where it all began. Here are some lovely flyers to close out our site.

nov holiday craft.jpg
Created by Marisol Gerena from Plattekill Public Library using Microsoft Publisher
StudyPaws
Created by Christine Seliga, Library Services Specialist at Pima Community College – West Campus using Microsoft Publisher and Canva to advertise therapy dog study break.
IT'S COSMIC.jpg
Created by Christine Seliga, Library Services Specialist at Pima Community College – West Campus Library for a book display celebrating the solar eclipse. Created using Canva, Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Paint.
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Designing Dewey

Today’s submission is from Ashley Schmidt, who designed these library shelf endcaps while employed at Fort Worth Library. Here’s Ashley in her own words:

Continue reading “Designing Dewey” →

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Need Library Volunteers?

Public libraries thrive on their volunteer base, and Olivia Allen, Library Public Assistant at McMinnville Public Library, wanted to create a brochure that would help her library recruit the best and the brightest.

I made this so we could have something to hand out to people interested in volunteering. Before we had this, we would give them the application to fill out. I wanted there to be something they could look at to get an idea of what volunteering is like instead of a big intimidating form. We really simplified all the information we could stuff onto the brochure, so this way it is easy to understand and it doesn’t feel like we expect them to make a decision right away. It also states the volunteers keep the library running, which is so true, and that is definitely the first impression we want to give. I used Canva to create this design.

You can find this brochure on the Librarian Design Share Google Drive.

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News Literacy for All

I’m not really here for discussions about “fake news,” but I’m all for critical information literacy, including critical news literacy, and so are a group of librarians at Washtenaw Community College’s Bailey Library. Meghan Rose, Martha Stuit, and Amy Lee presented a poster recently at the Michigan Academic Library Association’s annual conference on their recent efforts to overhaul a News Literacy Libguide and use it as a springboard for instruction.

Continue reading “News Literacy for All” →

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Use the Fork

Star Wars Cooking Class flyer

Today’s submission comes to us from Lyndey Clayborn at the Oconee County Public Library in Georgia. Using Canva, Lyndey was able to build the adorable BB8 and create a fantastic flyer for her library’s Star Wars Cooking Class.

I used the basic shapes in Canva to “build” a BB8 for our library’s Star Wars Cooking Class for teens. The great thing about BB8 is that she is simplistic and minimal in design. So she’s perfect for creating using simple shapes!

Cute, sweet, and simple: The best kind of design! As always, you can download this flyer on the Librarian Design Share Google Drive or follow Lyndey on Canva.

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Promoting Services

Librarians are always looking for creative ways to reach people and to inform our public about our services. I’m constantly changing up my brochures and handouts to look more modern and to contain more concise, relevant information.

Linda Kramer, Library Director at Martin Luther College has designed a poster in Canva using simple colors and friendly, familiar graphics to attract the eye and promote her library’s services, hours, and people who can help. About this design, Linda says, “while being a resource for students, this was also handy as a basic information sheet for new faculty on campus.” Mission accomplished!

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Enhanced by Design – Presentation & Handouts

One-half of Librarian Design Share is headed to Knoxville, TN to present at the 2017 Library Collective Conference alongside Amanda VerMeulen (St. Mary’s College of Maryland) and Dan Vinson (Mount Mary University). I’m super excited to be presenting with these awesome folks, and wanted to be sure to share our presentation slides, handouts, and other resources with Librarian Design Share readers. The focus of the conference is “Make it Beautiful, Make it Useable” which was all the sell I needed to attend. The conference schedule looks amazing, and I’d encourage you to check it out.

Here’s the info about our session:

Enhanced by Design: Creating user-informed, aesthetically attractive projects for your library

In this session participants will learn how different visual materials can address user concerns uncovered through focus groups, surveys, and ethnographic studies. Products created from data gleaned through these methods aren’t inherently beautiful, but by applying aesthetic design principles to these projects we can create products where usability is enhanced by design.

What this session IS about: basic user research methods, applying basic aesthetic principles/theories to creating visual materials, design-decision making
What this session is NOT about: in-depth session on graphic design or aesthetic theory,
how to analyze user research data (no coding, no stats).

Some questions to think about before the session:
What is a problem you want to solve in your library?
What is a big picture question you have about your library/users/etc.?

You can check out our session slides below. It’s a mix of lightning style talks, discussion, activities, and Q&A. We hope the session will be interactive and fun, and we’re looking forward to learning from people who attend.

We also have a number of resources we’re sharing with participants, including:

You can also find all of the designs highlighted in this presentation on the Librarian Design Share Google Drive in the Enhanced by Design Presentation 2017 folder. If you’ll be at The Library Collective Conference too, stop by and say hello!

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How a Design is Revised

Today’s post is a little different in that we’re not just sharing a finished design, but showing and describing a design revision. This submission comes to us from Brittany Iverson, Learning & Research Services Librarian at Montana State University. A walkstation was recently added to the Library Commons, and Brittany was asked to create an infographic with how-to-use instructions and the benefits of walking while working. Here is the first draft of her work:

Continue reading “How a Design is Revised” →

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