Graphic Design: The Sequel

Since I haven't made any significant strides in my graphic design skills since last week, I decided to try and be smarter this time around and spend more time looking at templates.  I knew finding a template that was pretty close to what I wanted would mean not having to mess with it too much, which would hopefully end up with a better result.  

Flyer Template

This was a task that was unfortunately easier said than it was done. There were two main issues I was running into while scrolling through templates: many are behind a paywall and most lacked the elements I was looking for. I eventually landed on the template to the right here. I thought it was colorful enough to stand out, had some space for text description, and it seemed possible to delete the illustration and add my own picture. It was still a bit off from what I was envisioning, but I thought it was close enough for me to work with. 

I had decided what I was going to make my flyer about before looking at templates. I knew it would be easier for me to make a flyer about a real event compared to an imagined one. Banned Books Week is an initiative I am familiar with, so I went looking for actual events that have been run in conjunction with it. I found Right to Read Night, which is a real annual event that takes place during the week, with the purpose being to have the country united in reading a particular banned book and discussing it. For 2025, the book was Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. So, I created a flyer imagining I was actually promoting this event for my library. 

It was important to me that a photo of the cover of Chains was on the flyer, since that alone provides a lot of important information. Since Canva lets you add frames for your photos, I chose one that looks like ripped paper, as that felt appropriate. I didn't think the colors of Chains were harmonious with the original colors of the flyer. Changing the colors so they were still visually interesting, coordinated well with the cover, and had a good level of contrast was a difficult process for me. I'm not confident I succeeded, but I hope I did. I thought the font of the title was a nice size and easy to read font. Additionally, I put the logo in the corner, which I found on their website. 

Since I designed it with the intention of printing, I knew the colors should be in CMYK. You can only download the flyer as a PDF Print in CMYK if you have a pro account, so I ended up downloading the original as a PNG and as well as a PDF, put the PDF through a RBG to CMYK converter, and screenshotted the new PDF so I could put them side-by-side in this post.  

Flyer Converted to CMYK

Original PNG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The colors in the converted flyer seem a bit more muted, but overall it looks pretty similar to me. I am not sure if the colors could have also been affected by how many times the files were converted. Overall, I don't think it's perfect, but I am relatively happy with how it turned out!