No one goes to the library to read—ugly signs that is. That’s why Lippincott’s own Business Librarian Melinda Roberts redesigned their food policy signs to be more visual. Congrats to Melinda! Her work was featured on the Librarian Design Share blog. Here are the old and redesigned signs:
Melinda doesn’t have a background in art but is surrounded by artists. She learned the basics of Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign through WICshops. She’s taking on one sign at a time—including the redesign of Lippincott’s Research to Go poster. She used a mix of serif and sanserif fonts, complementary colors, and design elements like rectangles and brackets to frame the content.
Here are Melinda’s tips for learning design programs, with a few design principles thrown in for good measure:
- Take a WICshop and get the basics. It’s so much easier to be shown how to do something the first time. You don’t have to remember it all.
- Google what you want to do. Somewhere out there is a person with a YouTube video about how to do it.
- Take advantage of your networks. If there’s something you don’t know, ask someone who does.
- Don’t use more than 3 fonts on any one piece (even though you really want to).
- Look for inspiration. Melinda says that she can’t necessarily create designs from her head, but she can look at what other people have done and build on it or adapt it.
- No one wants to read text. Use more graphics and fewer words.
Design WICshops are offered all the time—Find or request one soon!
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