On this edition of From the Desk, I want to share a Library Basics handout that I’ve created using Adobe Illustrator. A lot of my job, aside from teaching information literacy sessions, involves designing handouts, signage, and other promotional materials for library events and services.
I consider myself a self-taught designer, garnering lots of advice and criticism (lots of criticism) from my good friend & amazing graphic designer, DJ. As many of you might know, using any Adobe product involves an enormous amount of time spent researching, practicing (tons of this), and watching tutorials. Adobe has some pretty great ones, if you’ve got the time to spend watching 🙂 Lucky for me, I have a pretty flexible schedule during the day at work, and I try to allow myself time learning. Shouldn’t we all?
I still think I’ve got a lot to learn, but here’s what I came up with– mostly to hand out to incoming freshmen (and other undergrads) at our upcoming Movie Night event:
What I’ve discovered is most important, is USING YOUR RESOURCES. Geez, we tell our students to do this all the time and then forget to do it ourselves. I feel like I’m always asking DJ the dumbest questions, but I’ve learned over the years that finding something you like and emulating that (not stealing their intellectual property, mind you) is a really great way to start out. They say, theft is a form of flattery 😉 You can find a bunch of really great portfolios and ideas from Behance, and you can even share your work there too, if you want.
So, if you like what you see above, here’s a list of fonts I used and where I got some inspiration for the design:
Archistico
Alex-Brush
Journal
Molesk
Dense–Regular
Axis
What have you created at your desk recently that you’re proud of?
Amy Pajewski 
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