As if from nowhere…

Many people have limited space in their homes, and storage can become a problem.  But what if your bookshelves could help you stay organized AND give you more room to move? Orla Reynolds is a designer who has solved just that problem with her “As if from nowhere” bookcases.

The bookcases hold four chairs and two small tables which can be pushed together to form a larger one. Pulling the chairs and tables from the shelves won’t disturb your books and almost blend right in when they are full of books.  How smart is that?

What a great idea!

What a fantastic idea! In Bogota, Columbia, libraries have hired a wonderful design firm Lowe/SSP3 to come up with a way to promote a book exchange. The fantastic ads are aimed at getting people to bring back a book they’ve read and leave with another great story. (The ad above is Snow White and Sherlock Holmes.  Can you see it?) Creative idea and it is bound to get people talking!

Harry Potter and Troy

Little Mermaid and Moby Dick

Don’t fear the internet

I love blogging.  It’s a challenge to come up with interesting things to write each day, and I enjoy keeping everyone up to date with what’s going on at the library. I’ve been blogging for the library now for almost four years, and while I didn’t know what I was going to post about when I first got started, I think it has all evolved into a kind of library/book/world mash-up. I may not be the best to keep up with Twitter or Facebook (although I’m challenging myself to do that this summer), I will continue to blog for the foreseeable future.  In fact, we’re coming up to our 1000 post soon, and I’m pretty surprised by that number. Who knew?

I don’t have a personal blog even though I’ve tried on occasion several times, but one thing I’ve been noticing more of lately is that more and more people (and businesses) are using blogs in place of websites.  They do everything from promote their creative endeavors (photography, writing, artwork etc.) to selling products online….all without having to spend a great deal of time and money designing a website, or paying someone to do it for them.  The problem with having someone else design a website is that you’ll need to keep them in the loop if you need to make changes or updates and it can become a hassle.  Will it get done? How much extra will it cost? Using a blog as a website eliminates all of those hassles AND you can now even have your own domain name so that it looks and feels just like a regular website. (Yes, you will pay a bit for that, but it’s much easier overall.)

And now…there’s help for those of us who don’t know a thing about designing websites or HTML or CSS code (what???).  The great people at Don’t Fear the Internet have put together several videos that go step by step through creating your own website, even if you have no programming skills. I went through the first one and thought it seemed reasonable (although a word to the wise…. this is NOT FOR CHILDREN.  Some explicit language! Why?  I have no idea, since everything seems so professional, otherwise.) I might even give it a try when I have time to sit and work on it. Each video goes through a different aspect and allows you to create from scratch, or finally, dissect a WordPress blog (which is what the library uses), and create a site through one of its templates.

So, if you’ve ever been curious as to how websites are designed and you’d like to give it a try, drop by the site to see what they have to offer. And get creative!

What if they’d been movies first?

We often see movie posters that draw us in to wanting to see a film.  And now at bookstores, big releases might have some display posters, but what if classic novels had been given the poster treatment? Recently, I came across a site that collected possible posters for classic novels.  What do you think?

Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species as designed by Delicious Design League

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes a designed by Tom Whalen

You can see more of the posters at this link here. I think I’d read more of these books if the covers were as interesting as these ideas.  How about you?

What do you know about Harry Potter?

Some people do gorgeous work, and I came across a fabulous graphic designer today who excels at his work! Wayne Dorrington is a designer and illustrator in London, England who boasts clients such as Google and EBay.  He also likes to put together great compilations, which he calls “infographics”, such as this wonderful poster about all things Harry Potter.

Some of the facts are truly fascinating, and I learned a thing or two that I hadn’t known about the Harry Potter series before.  But this isn’t the only great thing on Dorrington’s site. Take a few minutes to browse through some of his posters and t-shirt designs.  They are fun, creative and certainly entertaining.  I’m going to keep an eye on this blog just because I find the work exciting and fun!

You can click on the picture above to take you to the website so that you can view it in a larger format.

(Wood) you do this?

I can’t imagine how people use saws and other sharp, fast moving tools without cutting off an appendage every time around, but there are many people out there who use them on a regular basis and still have all their fingers accounted for. When I came across this fantastic and mind-boggling YouTube video, I just had to post it!

If you are interested in woodworking, we have plenty of books available at the library on the subject that might inspire you to finish a few of those projects.

We also carry a nice assortment of woodworking magazines for lots of current advice on tools and projects. You can always stop by the site listed in the video WoodWorkingInAction but be aware that it is a paid video magazine site.  I’ll never know how the man in the presentation created the deer but maybe you’ll be inspired to try something similar yourself.