Creative Library Displays

There are lots of famous people, each one with different personalities and characteristics. What makes those people so special?

Do they all have the Xfactor?

I wanted to create a display connecting our biography books to the International Baccalaureate characteristics such as:            'Thinkers'          

             'Perseverance'

'Communicators'                                'Resilient'

                     'Principled'           

and raise the question: 'Do all those famous people have these characteristics or is it something else that gives them  –  the  Xfactor?

It had to be a vibrant and colourful display, posh and upmarket –  showing paparazzi features common in gossip magazines

What you need:

• Fabric – 3 different patterns/colours for background
• Fabric – pink voile, army patterned, feathery patterned
• 3 Foam heads – 2 women, 1 man
• 2 Hats, sunglasses, feather etc.
• 'Black board' cart
• Title – the X factor
• IB characteristics – printed and laminated

What to do:

• Cover the background with the green – black – yellow fabric. I used left-over for the top part – too small to cover it completely and had to create a frilly kind of extra in the middle. It gave it unintentionally extra dimension

• Staple the title to the board
• Staple the black board cards to the board
• Attach the IB characteristics to the black cards with pins or staples – you could write them on the black board card as well!
• Place the foam heads on the shelf – use Blu-Tack or double sided tape to secure them
• Drape the feathery fabric around the first head, stick a feather in the fabric
• Place the sunglasses on the nose of the middle one and put her hat on, secure it with tape – drape the pink voile around her neck and let it hang down in a pointy way. Cut it if necessary and tape it to give it the shape you want
• Drape the army fabric around the neck of the man and secure it with staples or tape. Put his hat on
• Cover the boxes in left-over fabric and use the glue gun or staples to secure it
• Put the display stands on the boxes and secure them with tape
• Put  the books on the stands and on the shelves

Stand back and have a look at your own creation – does it need adjustment?

Are the heads posh and glamorous? Do you need to drape the fabric in shape?

Be critical – think how will others see it. A good tool to help you is a mirror. Get a decent size mirror and look at your display from that angle. It shows you the uneven parts, the slightly out-of-line title or the books that need a different place. Sometimes the covers or size of the books don't go well together when placed beside each other. Take note of that – you want to show them in the most attractive way!

Filed under: Biographies, Celebrities, Education, Other