Don't forget about Dover

I have been a package designer for almost a decade and sometimes I forget about a great design resource, Dover Publications. They publish books of black or full color royalty-free art that can either be scanned or found on the provided CD. I already have so much clip art in my arsenal, but I picked up some new material today. When I am not designing, I can be found slowly browsing through antique stores for any vintage packaging labels or ads. Today while I was browsing through Barnes n Noble, I found a Dover book called Full Color Old Time Label Art. GORGEOUS! Even if I do not use any of the art, the labels are inspirations in color, diecuts shapes, illustrations and typography. Stunning. The book included the 300 dpi RGB TIFF artwork on CD for both Mac and Windows. Here is the cover and an example TIFF. Don't forget, these are also a great reference for stationery design and wedding invitations! Initial artwork and woodcut illustrations.

 

Example artwork

Other Dover favorites of mine:

- 1500 Decorative Ornaments (CD included)

- Ornate Letters and Initials

- Printer's Ornaments from the Renaissance to 20th Century

- Old Fashioned Christmas Illustrations

[Remember, for the items you need to scan in, either change them to vector paths out of Photoshop or save them as TIFFs, EPSs or bitmaps.]

CHEERS