The TAMU Clip Art Disk

The TAMU Clip Art Disk

    I undertook this project in an effort to maximize my office's visibility and income within the University.

    I had noticed that we were receiving requests on a fairly frequent basis to provide various A&M symbols, and creation of this product seemed the most efficient method of providing needed service as well as allowing our office to realize income through repeated sales of digitally created artwork. My concept and execution were apparently of perfect timing to take advantage of the desktop-publishing industry and personal computing trends.

    The TAMU Clip Art Disk contained the two most-frequently-used A&M logos: the TAMU Seal, and the ATM symbol. Further, the disk contained illustrations of the TAMU mascot, Reveille, Ol' Sarge, the "Gig-Em!" thumbs-up symbol, and various other A&M illustrations. The files were created in EPS (encapsulated postscript) -- a vector file format which allows the images to be resized infinitely larger or smaller without losing resolution. This allowed the illustrations to be used in a variety of printing projects on all different printers and maximized the accessibility of the files from major graphic layout programs such as Pagemaker and Quark Xpress.

 
    After I created the disks, I obtained approval to sell the items via the University Licensing Office. According to University rules at that time, TAMU offices, as a part of A&M, are not constrained from selling items containing A&M marks. I scripted a very tight usage license to insure that individuals buying the disks did not mistakenly think that purchase of the disk allowed them unlicensed use of the images, and the Licensing Office approved my legalease.

    The diskettes were created in part to be attractive as novelty items, and I played into that mindset with my packaging design. The disks were made of maroon plastic (maroon & white are A&M's colors), and the TAMU Seal was silk-screened on the metal covers of the diskettes. The specialized format of the disks caused them to be more expensive, but I pinched pennies elsewhere to keep costs low -- I projected that a $10 retail cost would be ideal for the product. I created the disks in two versions: one for Mac users, and one for PC users. I tested in the most-used layout programs on Macs and PCs prior to release.

     After an initially promising debut, I had
the disks mass-produced and sold through third-parties as well as via direct-mail and phone orders. Many thousands of the disks were sold all over the country, and they were carried in local bookstores, Barnes & Noble, computer shops, and grocery stores. The artwork has been reproduced in many printing projects, on T-shirts, tatoos, banners, internet sites, phone books, and on other projects too numerous to list.

    During the years the disks were being sold, they were beneficial to my office within A&M (Cartographics), and they were beneficial to the University Licensing Office as well. The product allowed others ready access to symbols for the production of products which were in turn licensed and brought greater income to the University.

Newspaper ad I designed and ran locally
promoting the clip art disks.

Point-of-Purchase Display Stand which I created
and supplied to stores carrying the disks.