“Got a Case of the Winter Blues?” Library Display

That awkward time between Valentine’s Day and Freedom To Read week is approaching…which means it’s time for a new display idea! This one’s got a pun, a bunch of snowmen having a snowball fight, and an unconventional way of selecting books. So you know it’ll be a hit.

Plus from where I’m stationed in Southwestern Ontario, it seems like everyone has a bad case of the Winter Blues. It’s the least I can do to cheer them up with corny puns and excellent books.

One sign says “Got a case of the Winter Blues?” and the second says “Check out one of these great books!” All of the books are very blue. There are winter themed buttons scattered around, free for the taking.

To be honest, this is not a difficult display, and choosing the books was the easiest part. And also the most fun! Take a stroll through the fiction section and you’ll be overwhelmed by the number of blue spines you see. I tried to balance a variety of genres/tones with a variety of blue tones.

I feel strongly that when making displays, librarians should take style and graphic design into account. I like to seek out new, fun fonts when making themed displays, but it’s important to balance flashy fonts with tamer ones. I found the snowy Kingthings Christmas font at fontspace.com, and paired it with a simple, but stylish Lucinda font. Check out this handy guide for Font Pairing and learn all about the difference between contrast and conflict.

I swear, they should teach this stuff in library school. But that’s another post for another time. Tomorrow maybe.

To add a little extra flare to the display, I made a few winter themed buttons. Frozen, Game of Thrones, Ice Age, Charlie Brown, and Frosty. I’ve found it’s always a good idea to add a sign saying “Take a button!” otherwise people think they’re not allowed. This was also a great way to raise awareness of our new button making services.

Resources:

Snowballs
Winter Blues Sign #1
Winter Blues Snowball Sign

Please note, I used a template from Microsoft Publisher to create the snowman images. I drew the snowball “swoosh” marks by hand, and I threw in a few snowflakes to fill it up.  One is a Star Wars themed snowflake designed by artist Anthony Herrera. You can download his patterns for free here.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.