Getting the most out of clip art

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, clip art is a noun, defined as this:

1. Ready-made pieces of printed or computerized graphic art, such as illustrations, borders, and backgrounds, that can be electronically copied and used to decorate a document.
2. A set of images, distributed as files with other software, that may be copied and pasted into documents  or other files.
3. Ready-made pieces of computerized graphic art that can be used to decorate a document.

The origins of clip art

Today’s dictionary definitions of clip art have been updated to reflect our world of computers. Back in the ’70s and long before that, clip art was sold in books with illustrations meant to be “clipped” using a pair of scissors or X-Acto knife. The clipped elements could then be pasted into a paper layout or design with rubber cement or wax.

As personal computers made their way into sign shops, design software like CorelDRAW!, Micrographics Designer, Arts and Letters, and Adobe Illustrator seemed to be in a race to supply buyers with volumes of CDs full of digital clip art and fonts.

Unfortunately, their race seemed more focused on quantity with not much emphasis on quality. A lot of the clip art was cheesy and primitive, and not much of it was directly useable by sign companies.

Clip art of today

Jumping forward a few decades, we can now find a fair amount of very good, clean clip art amongst the mountains of almost worthless clip art. The Internet has made it easy to find both kinds. Most sign shops have little need for clip art designed for wedding announcements, birthday cards, or whimsical cartoons, but no matter the needs, there’s plenty to choose from.

Some clip art is simply scans of old artwork that are either sold in bitmap form or has been auto-outlined. The quality seldom meets the requirements of most sign shops. Other clip art is cartoonish images that may or may not be of much use to a sign company.

Well-done clip art is usually hand digitized in a vector-based program. The artwork can be scaled to huge sizes with little quality loss. Bitmapped images are usually intended for use at a small scale. Unfortunately, a bitmapped image becomes pixelated if enlarged much at all.

Why use clip art?

Most signs and designs can benefit by some form of graphic element to complement the text. Signs and designs with some sort of graphic are more likely to get noticed, and, as a result, can make the sign more memorable.

How and where the designer obtains the graphic elements will often depend on two criteria: time and budget, and the skills of the designer.

A movie company, for example, may spend millions of dollars on the movie production. The company would have a hefty budget for the movie’s posters and artwork. A new flower shop might have a much more limited budget, so the designer must work quickly and efficiently. Clip art can help!

Not every artist and designer has the skills to digitize and clean up the sketches and scans that may be required for the project. Elaborate designs can be challenging and time consuming. Digitally “pasting in” a commercially produced clip art graphic can be quick and easy, even for an entry level designer.

A spark of inspiration

Some clip art panels are ready to roll. Simply open the clip art piece in one of the many available design software programs, add some text and make a few color choices. Simply viewing quality clip art can provide a spark of inspiration, even if the design isn’t used intact.

Often, new users see clip art as only “black and white” elements in a design. Actually, most clip art is designed to augment a layout and not overpower it. Artwork can be subtly added in to break up large blocks of open space. It is possible to pull out smaller elements of a larger design to become dominant elements in another composition.

Many flavors of clip art

There are dozens of kinds of clip art. I often think of clip art as black and white vector graphics that can be cut using a plotter, CNC router, plasma cutter, or laser cutter. Those same graphics can then be enlarged, merged, or combined into completely different designs. Additionally, the black and white elements can be colorized, using programs like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

Clip art can also be collections of textures, photos of sunsets, patterns, and a wide range of graphic or visual elements. Some collections are “themed”, such Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Victorian, Pop Art, Native American, Aztec, Norwegian, and so forth. In short, you can find clip art featuring almost any subject you can imagine.

Golden Studios Clip Art

Back in 1995, I digitized several collections of vintage clip art inspired by some of the talented sign artists and designers of the time. They are currently being sold through Letterhead Fonts, where you can view my collections.

I am currently working on a large new collection of Art Nouveau inspired images. The Art Nouveau design style was popular in the late 1800s through around 1915. Actually, they never went completely out of style, and I’ve found them to be quite flexible even for more modern designs! This page features just a few pieces that are “in the works” and should be available at Letterhead Fonts very soon.

It doesn’t have to be a traditional design. Many of these graphics work great as contemporary graphics.

Don’t limit yourself to using the entire graphic. Sometimes just a portion of it is all you need.