Thing 4: Visual Communication, or, Fun with Images!

In the past few weeks, I've been a bit busy, and I left RUDAI23 behind. I have other priorities in life after all, although not all of them are as fun as the Things I have to practice with. Then, considering that I've already reached my personal record of blog posting, I cannot really complain about me and my reluctance at writing on the web.

Anyway, Thing 4 made me experiment with some fun tools that I did not know anything about before. I had lots of fun trying the various features in Photofunia, and I think it's a very interesting little app, that can spice things up when it comes to create promotional materials for the library.

I'm no graphic designer, but I do like creating posters and signs to promote events or resources. And sometimes what you need is just a fun and catchy photo that could grab the patrons' attention.

While I was "busy" at work, I finally made my own sleeveface (and that was already a lot of fun!), so I decided to add even more fun by using that photo in Photofunia.

So here's my result.

How does it work? You simply navigate the image bank proposed by the app, choose the one that fits your needs (can we talk about needs when we are talking about having fun?), and then you upload your own photo into it. You can end up in a painting, in a business newspaper, on a vinyl cover, or on a giant billboad. The combinations are endless!

When you are done with your masterpiece, you can share it in other social media, or you can simply save it as an image file on your computer. But where's the fun if you don't share it?

If you are too shy and you don't want to use personal photos, you can also choose to add personal text into images from the collection of the app. And this is where the story becomes interesting for work. 

This simple trick allows you to create catchy posters in few clicks.

So I gave it a try and created an image that could be helpful for promoting the library extended hours during final weeks.

I really loved the simplicity of the tool, and I've already used it in the library blog to promote our workshops. It's a simple and effective way to add visuals to a boring blog post: