September 5, 2008

I've got THE EYE

At my university we celebrate Founder's Day. It's a day when we celebrate and thank the Sisters of St. Francis who founded our school. This year I was asked to do a display in the large display case in the middle of the main building on campus. (No pressure). So for the last three months I've been gathering materials, scanning photographs, cutting out background pieces and much more. Because I'm such a detail person things had to be just right and I've slowly been driving myself insane.
Here's a little background about the display. At this year's Founder's Day celebration there will be a blessing of the bricks that have been newly laid in the nice walk in the middle of the Quad. (The school raised money by having people "purchase" a brick and have them inscribed to their liking and then placing them sporadically throughout the path). So I decided to use the theme of the day "From our past, we pave our future" and show how the school has changed over the years using photos and other stuff to compare the past and the present.The background of the display is a brick path that mimics the one outside in the Quad and then moving from left to right the photos and brochures and other things move through the years. I found some really cool stuff and it was pretty fun coming up with ideas. I added a couple of 3D elements by hanging some framed pictures with clear fishing wire so they are suspended and not just flat against the back wall. There are also a couple of key-chain and pennants both old and new.
I had help from my director with setting up a laptop so that we could play a video within the display. I put all the images that are in the display into a video and it's playing on a loop in the corner.
I'm intensely proud of this project and was very gratified to have people walking by commenting on it as it was going up. My favorite comment was from a staff member that I didn't know who said "This display is just great. You've got the eye." I'm really hoping that's a good thing and he wasn't referring to smudged mascara, but either way he noticed and appreciated the display.
Here are some pictures I took as it was developing. The first one is the brick walk before I added all the stuff. I took pictures of the path outside and used Photoshop (because I'm an expert now) to cut out individual ones to mimic the pattern and colors of the bricks outside. Then there's the display without the AV equipment and then the final product. Feel free to stand and applaud.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am standing!! I am applauding! What a lot of work and creativity! You photoshopped the bricks? You are indeed an amazing, multi-talented archivist. You should get a big raise!