Bloomsburg Public Library Internship Week 2

During my second week interning with the marketing department of the Bloomsburg Public Library, I started to really learn and understand how much thought and intention goes into even the smallest details of marketing and design. This week was a lot more hands-on, and I learned a lot about sizing and settings for social media posts, posters, and printed materials, as well as how printing works behind the scenes and how materials are chosen to be displayed physically throughout the building. I also got my first chance to create actual graphics for social media, which was a lot more anxiety-inducing than it was exciting. Alongside the design work, I helped reorganize part of the workspace.

On Monday, I learned a lot about the specific dimensions used for different types of posts and printed materials. For Facebook posts, they typically use a 16x9 ratio. I also learned that Facebook headers must be exactly 851x315 pixels so that they stretch across the entire header on monitors or desktops. However, since people look at Facebook on many different advices, all important text and decoration must not be placed outside of 640x360 pixel area so that nothing important gets cut off on the smallest screens like mobile devices. I also learned the sizes and placements of physical posters. Posters hung on walls and doors are usually 8.5x11 inches and are placed where people will immediately see them when entering a new area, including the elevator and the bathrooms. When posters are hung on windows or glass doors, they don't print on both sides of the paper. Instead, to make sure the posters are visible on both sides of the glass, they print two separate one-sided posters and place a blank sheet between them to prevent the light from shining through and causing the text to sort of bleed together.

Smaller, take-home flyers that sit on our circulation desks are 5.5x4.25 inches, and larger posters placed in special display stands are 11x17 inches. Printing the 11x17 posters involve extra steps. Specially sized paper must be loaded into a specific side drawer on the printer, and it must be double checked that the computer will send the print job to that drawer. I also learned that all printed materials need to be downloaded as "PDF Print," flattened, and the color profile must be set to CMYK instead of RGB. I also finally learned what CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key) means, and that they use that color grade because it is best for professional printing.

On Wednesday, I got to attempt my first real designs. I created a Facebook post graphic for an upcoming talk about Sarah Van Tassel, the founder of the library, that will take place in May. I used a portrait of her and put a classic brown frame PNG over it, both of which I then tilted, and placed that as well as the event information over a marble background. The graphic had a color scheme of light blues and dark browns to give it an elegant look worthy of the amazing woman that Sarah Van Tassel was. I also made another post graphic for a building talk happening in April, using the silhouette of the building that makes up the BPL logo over a brick texture with the event details underneath. That had a color scheme similar to that of the logo which is red, green, white, beige, and black. My supervisor said both designs were "great" but needed a few tweaks. I'm excited to see if they will actually use my ideas. To finish the day, I helped my supervisor clean out one of the cabinets to install a new paper filing organizer in it instead. This will make marketing materials much easier to find and keep everything more organized moving forward. 

This week reminded me that marketing and design are about so much more than making things look pretty. Things need to be accessible, visible, intentional, understandable, and even creativity needs a little organization!