Inspire Me With the Art of Children's Books
February 9, 2010 2:52 PM Subscribe
My local library's big fund raising event benefits the children's section, helping to purchase books for a well-loved and heavily used part of the collection. Help me set the scene with bookish decorations.
My friends and I have been asked to make decorations--most likely posters, or other banners/oddly-shaped flat cutouts that can be laminated for later use in the children's section--for this event. Although our kids will be responsible for choosing and making these posters (three certainties are Harry Potter, Curious George and The Magic Treehouse), I would also like to make one of my own with Norton Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth" as its theme.
I am looking for a) ideas on how to design such a piece for the Juster book, and b) examples of cool posters/cutouts interpreting children's books, so we can get our kids thinking about design ideas and elements. Bonus points if you can provide ideas for table settings as well.
It's fair to say that the crowd will be older, and, at this point in their lives, more likely to be grandparents than parents of young children. They are likely to lean toward classic and conservative tastes, but whimsy (in moderation) won't go amiss.
(I am suddenly plagued about the legality of this, as there is money involved, although the event is an auction for a non-profit and these decorations will be placed in the library later.)
Inspire me, please?
My friends and I have been asked to make decorations--most likely posters, or other banners/oddly-shaped flat cutouts that can be laminated for later use in the children's section--for this event. Although our kids will be responsible for choosing and making these posters (three certainties are Harry Potter, Curious George and The Magic Treehouse), I would also like to make one of my own with Norton Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth" as its theme.
I am looking for a) ideas on how to design such a piece for the Juster book, and b) examples of cool posters/cutouts interpreting children's books, so we can get our kids thinking about design ideas and elements. Bonus points if you can provide ideas for table settings as well.
It's fair to say that the crowd will be older, and, at this point in their lives, more likely to be grandparents than parents of young children. They are likely to lean toward classic and conservative tastes, but whimsy (in moderation) won't go amiss.
(I am suddenly plagued about the legality of this, as there is money involved, although the event is an auction for a non-profit and these decorations will be placed in the library later.)
Inspire me, please?
Check with local bookstores and see if they have any displays you can have. They often buy large cardboard cutouts of popular book characters for a new book release.
Table settings...well, the Alice in Wonderland movie is coming out. Maybe you could do table settings based on the Lewis Carrol book? Recreate the tea party scene. Get lots of different copies of the book (should be readily available in used bookstores) and place them around the table. Decorate top hats.
posted by morganannie at 10:22 AM on February 10, 2010
Table settings...well, the Alice in Wonderland movie is coming out. Maybe you could do table settings based on the Lewis Carrol book? Recreate the tea party scene. Get lots of different copies of the book (should be readily available in used bookstores) and place them around the table. Decorate top hats.
posted by morganannie at 10:22 AM on February 10, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
Also, I was in a theater version of "The Phantom Tollbooth" and have very fond memories as a six year old climbing in and out of a tollbooth made out of an old refrigerator box, which might be a great decoration for a one-night affair, since cardboard isn't really known for longitivtiy.
posted by banannafish at 3:16 PM on February 9, 2010