15 June 2012

Free Clip Art? A Ginkgo border design


I have used free clip art on countless occasions.  Now it is time to pay it back.  Above is my Ginkgo border design.  Feel free to download it.  Original is pen and ink.

This Ginkgo border design was used for signage for an elementary school library.  The design had to work with multiple topics, but not require hours of hand drawing -- 30 signs!  Inspiration initially came from the cover of Jacqueline Kelly's book, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate.  I liked the foilage silhouetted against the yellow.  However, if I was going to draw that many leaves, I wanted an interesting tree.  Ginkgo leaves have a beautiful fan shape.  Then the final inspiration for the circles came from the carving by egg sculptor, Brian Baity.


The design was pasted as a background (technically, as a header) into Windows Word and then the words and clip art were added on top as text boxes.  The Word format allows the librarian to update the signs easily on her own since it does not require fancy graphics software.

Below are some of the finished signs.  Main titles are on yellow card stock and Dewey Decimal classes are on parchment.  The only hand drawing is hi-lighting of circle border in yellow-orange and silver crayon.


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