Caffeine-Fueled Experiment Leads to Lancaster Coloring Book

While coloring books have typically been a pastime for children, the trends of adult coloring books have become a rising sensation. On March 9, 2016, Lancaster native, David “DJ” Ramsay Jr., published the “Historic Downtown Lancaster Coloring Book.”

“This book has been a labor of love for almost two years,” Ramsay said. “What started as a caffeine-fueled experiment with Adobe Illustrator in early 2015 has led to this.”

Ramsay started thinking about a Lancaster coloring book when he was a student at Millersville. He had never worked on something like this before. Mainly he has collaborated with others on projects such as commercial projects, gallery exhibition catalogs, books of poetry, etc.

“I created a line art illustration of how theMcNairy library would look post-renovation. The library still uses it today!” Ramsay said. “The idea floated around in my head until sometime in 2014, when I started to do illustrations of buildings in downtown Lancaster for fun.”

After a few months, Ramsay’s illustration collection was beginning to build up. He developed the idea to turn them into a coloring book. After taking a year-long break from the project, Ramsay dusted off the pages in late January 2016, finishing and publishing his coloring book.

One of the more difficult challenges Ramsay faced while trying to put the coloring book together was choosing which landmarks from historic downtown Lancaster would make it into the book.

“I decided to do some of my most favorite buildings first, then I added a few buildings that were beautiful but were ultimately lost in the name of progress,” Ramsay said. “I also wanted to showcase some of the work of Lancaster’s architect, C. Emlen Urban.”

Ramsay’s favorite landmark is a tie between Central Market and the Watt & Shand department store, the façade of which is now a part of the Lancaster County Convention Center.

There is much more to historic downtown Lancaster than the 23 illustrations in this book. Ramsay said he has already begun working on a second volume that will feature lesser-known buildings and buildings that are no longer standing. However, this second volume will hold a greater challenge for Ramsay to work from archival sources to figure exactly what these buildings looked like.

Ramsay graduated from Millersville University (MU) in 2013 with a degree in art, and is currently employed at the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences as an assistant to the dean. In addition, he serves on the board of a local nonprofit, Lancaster New Sounds, where he is responsible for the organization’s marketing efforts and maintaining its brand presence. In the past, Ramsay has worked with MU theatre’s faculty and staff to create a cohesive set of marketing materials for the 2015-2016 season.

The “Historic Downtown Lancaster Coloring Book” is available online at www.LancasterColoringBook.com and select downtown Lancaster Retailers. Users can share their creations on Instagram with #LancasterColoringBook (https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/lancastercoloringbook/) or by tagging @LancasterColoringBook (https://www.instagram.com/LancasterColoringBook/). For more information about Ramsay or his other projects, check out his website http://www.davidramsayjr.com/.