Unearthing a Story, One Design at a Time

Hello! I'm Grace Lyons, the Graphic Design Intern at the Beaufort County Library. For the past 15 weeks, I've helped design a lot of the posters, cards, scavenger hunts, gameboards, and activities for the upcoming 2026 Summer Reading Program.

I couldn't have been more excited when I learned the 2026 Summer Reading's theme was Unearth A Story. I’ve always loved all things archeology-related, so making media with that theme was right up my alley. All the dinosaur facts collecting dust in my brain were finally put to use for the themed activities!

My favorite project to work on, and the one that took the longest, was the gameboard. It was really fun (and challenging) figuring out how to fit all our ideas into one board and how they worked together. Pretty early on, we decided that the gameboard should go in the direction of a map — inspired by the Indiana Jones movies and games — hence the newspaper clippings and small pieces of paper “attached” with paperclips. It was an especially fun day when I realized we could use a trail of dinosaur footprints to represent each day readers needed to read to complete the board (originally, they were supposed to be dinosaur eggs!).

Not only did I get to make posters and the gameboard, but I also did activities for participants to complete in the summer, like the crossword puzzle and word search. Those projects were especially challenging since, as much as I loved doing them, I had never made either of those puzzles before. Surprisingly, the word search was pretty straightforward, but the crossword required much trial & error and a lot of research!

I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the Beaufort County Library and create designs for their 2026 Summer Reading Program. Special thanks to Theresa Furbish and Traci Cox, who have helped me a lot over the course of my internship. During my internship at the Beaufort Library, I’ve learned so much more about composition, editing, and design, and I absolutely can't wait for this year’s Summer Reading to start.

Want to play? Join the fun by grabbing a game board at the library and get to reading! The program continues through July 31, 2026.