When I sat down to design the latest album for photographer Andrea Murphy, I had a sense of how the design should feel when it was finished. We now have a sort of rhythm with Andrea’s designs, and have developed a style that she is excited about, so I was really delighted to get started. As I browsed through her image collection, I knew this album would be a joy to design. Why? Because the images are just right for creating a beautiful album. In this post I will share what I see when an image collection is balanced for producing a great album with a cohesive story and design theme.
First, Andrea’s “just right” collection includes a few abstract and interesting images – photographs that stop the eye and require thought to discern the subject. These kinds of images are perfect for an opening spread. Only a few are needed, maybe one or two in the entire design. They provide a good visual break from the busier spreads and allow the viewer to pause, reflecting on the artistry of the photography, or perhaps the beauty of the couple and their special event.
Next, the bride’s preparation images highlight details in both wide and tight perspective. Often, these preparation images contain only close-ups. This may be the photographer’s style or a clients preference, but wide perspectives provide context and alternative views. If you have them, include them so they can be used as a faded background or embellishment to support overlapping images and the overall design theme.
The ceremony images often stir emotion. In this particular design, the ceremony images are primarily wide field-of-view. The angles, leading lines, and well-timed captures made them perfect for telling the story from a different perspective.
The creative portraits are the most fun section of the album. Andrea did a fabulous job of capturing both classic and creative images with a bit of an edge. Too much of that edginess and the design can start to resemble a fashion shoot. While this stylization can enhance certain images, the goal is to design a timeless wedding album, so classic images are always an important addition for balance and relevance.
Andrea successfully played off of the bride’s gorgeous flowers. Choosing a striking object or important detail and then building a theme around it can provide a design “anchor” and the focus of several very different images. It’s an easy way to create a cohesive, richly dimensional design.
The importance of family portraits can be overlooked, and often added only because of the “must have” factor. However, they are usually the best selling images and Andrea, again, did very well by creating images that are fun and classic. Check out the spread of portraits for some inspiration.
Finally, the reception images. A great collection of reception images will include the important events, as well as the great fun all were having. And don’t forget the details! But these pages can be challenging! Without care the reception pages can look crazy busy and confuse the viewer. It can be difficult for the album designer, not knowing who all these people are in all those shots. If an image collection is really random, a good solution is to create one or two spreads with images in a collage. This works well for up to about 20 images per spread. In this particular design for Andrea, it was best to select the ending image for the last page, then go back and lay out the reception pics in relation to the beginning, continuing story, and final image.
Over time, DoodleDo has developed a unique style for Andrea’s albums, something of an individual theme using various layers along with images used as embellishments. We can create your designs this way, too! Just let us know your preferences and include appropriate images for the layer effects.
Hopefully, this gives you a little direction for choosing images and guiding your client in smart image selections. Think about these things when you are shooting and give your clients a balanced collection, while encouraging them to also be selective when choosing. Andrea’s beautiful photography and considerate editing is ultimately what makes this album design shine.
~Robin
Click the thumbnail to view Andrea’s latest multi-layered design.
Subtle earth tones, soft pastels, ivory, white, black. These are colors one expects to find in most wedding albums, and ones we use often to compliment the photographer’s images which must remain the focal point. Color and graphics can be distracting if poorly used or positioned in ways that overpower the images. We carefully coordinate these elements in each design to create presentations that are unique, striving to not replicate what we’ve done in previous designs. Sometimes the image collection we receive calls for something a little more daring, a challenge to experiment with these elements in unusual ways.
Photographer Sainath Kamath came to DoodleDo during our March sample album design sale and acquired a number of great new showpieces for his studio. We featured his family album design in a recent post, unique for its interplay of images, color blocks, and negative space to evoke a sense of playfulness. In this featured design, the bold, colorful wedding details inspired the use of equally bold, primary colors. This striking use of color still keeps the images the center of attraction, accomplished by using just a few colors with no interfering graphics. The key is simplicity.
One of the challenges we face as designers is creating a unique layout with each new design. We strive for uniqueness from conception to presentation of the first draft, and are always anxious for the feedback from you, our photographers and clients. This feedback is especially important when you or your client has referenced a former design as an example of what they like, or requests a design just like one we created for someone else, which we do not do. We might create a variation of the design theme, but we never treat our designs as templates, plugging new pics into an existing layout.
This striving for uniqueness pushes us to develop new ways to build layouts, make interesting placements and patterns, and form subtle interplays between elements on a page or spread. A good recent example of the results of this constant exercise is a design for photographer, Andrea Murphy. Her request for something classic and romantic, yet not contemporary, perhaps a little retro, but ultimately “just gorgeous” really set our creative juices flowing. The final design with it’s multiple graphic layers and varying opacities is a visual delight, complementing Andrea’s beautiful images featuring rich color, lovely tone, and beautiful light.
In our last What’s in the Box (see the preceding post below) we reviewed a beautiful engagement book produced by Image Capsule, an album provider located in San Jose, California. Robin talked often with the Image Capsule folks at WPPI, impressed by their products and claims, especially their boast of only a 3-day turnaround. Well, Robin found herself needing that fast turnaround and gave them a try. Ordered on a Wednesday, the final book was in her hands the following Wednesday. Include time to ship and that is very fast! More importantly, the quality of materials, exceptional printing, and sturdy binding are outstanding for a book in this price range.
The design for this album is also beautiful – created for Robin’s own wedding client featuring images from their engagement session. We often use low opacity images as backgrounds in these designs, both engagement books and guestbooks, accented by bright colors and graphic lines. The combination makes for a very appealing presentation, and a great way for others to see your creativity at the wedding.
Our design clients are very familiar with the form we use to begin a new design. Photographer Lisa Fitts asked DoodleDo to “keep it very clean and simple” while noting her preference for a black and white theme with light graphics. The Design & Preferences Form gives each of you the opportunity to indicate all the critical foundational information we need to come up with a good concept. It also allows for additional comments, such as Lisa’s, to aid us in providing a first draft that will meet your expectations, as well as your client’s expectations. This not only saves time but often cuts down on revisions. In fact, used well and in dialogue with your own client, it can eliminate revisions altogether.
If you have signed onto our Email List and completed an Account Application, then you should have the link to our online Design Form. Use this for each and every design you want us to create for you. We encourage you to provide as much information you feel necessary to communicate your own ideas. And be sure to include the client! Ask if they have any ideas or special requests regarding the design. Feel free to send them to our Design pages to view samples for reference, then indicate your likes, and even dislikes, on the Form. These practices will help a great deal in achieving a satisfying first draft with little or no revisions.
A detailed Design Order & Preferences Form, referencing the design samples here on the website, and providing a folder of Must Have images will help us meet everyone’s expectations right from the start. In an upcoming post we will discuss this very important Must Have image collection, and some ways to use it to your advantage.
Click the thumbnail to view Lisa’s very clean and simple design!
When creating new designs, we often look through the collection of images for an element that will inspire a new concept and effectively tie it all together. It’s important when doing this to meet the preferences of the client, since they will certainly be aware if there is any significant deviation. In this new design for New York photographer, Chris Chen, of Dynasty Weddings, we chose a bold background color for various pages, pulled from the bride’s bouquet. Then to tie it all together we added a calligraphic-style graphic inspired by the chinese embellishment appearing in the bottom image of page two. Note how the graphic continues the line running through the two hearts. A small detail, but a good example of the little things we do in our designs to make them extra special.
