I would like to encourage you to start and finish a mini album. I love the feeling I get when I hold a finished album in my hands. It's addictive, and it makes me want to complete more albums and share them with the people I love. I actually make an event out of it. I will organize a nice meal for my husband and after wards we will sit down together, flick through the album and remember the moments that have been captured.
Here's a couple of my favorite shutterfly albums -
I bet you have tons of finished pages inside your layouts folder, just sitting there. I did, until I decided to bring them all together in a Shutterfly album. I was pleased with the fact I had so many pages with the everyday moments captured. And that's the most important thing. But as a designer I noticed one thing that really bugged me. The pages didn't have flow. Yes, the individual page designs seemed to look balanced and complete. But when they were positioned next to another page with a slightly different style, the two just didn't complement each other, resulting in a album with no flow and no balance. In a way I knew this was going to happen while designing, but I guess I thought it would be alright. And you know what, it is alright. But, if you want to create something with more emotion and flow, you will need to pay better attention to the page designs when creating. Otherwise the special details you put into each page will be overlooked and not appreciated by the viewer.
I view an album almost like a beautiful song. It has structure.
An intro - Cover and Title page of your album.
Your title page should create suspense and curiosity to the viewer (family and friends). And your title page should be the same.
Pre-Chorus - The style of these pages should be predominant throughout most of the album.
Bridge - These page designs are made up of two pages, connecting to make one big design.
Breaks - Simple, minimalistic pages. These act like an interlude between pages that have a lot of text and photos. It's important to throw in pages like this, so the viewer can refresh their eyes and maybe even think more about what they have just viewed.
Chorus - Pages that are heavily layered, artistic, fantasy inspired. These create a sharp contrast to the pages before and after them. You can also, if you want, end and start an album with a page like this.
Tips on creating more flow throughout your pages.
- Always keep in mind what the opposite page will look like when you're designing. If you've already completed one page, pull it up in your image editing program and always refer back to it, comparing it with the page you are working on.
- Make a whole composition flow onto the opposite page by positioning objects and photos so they overlap each page.
- For contrast, try creating a simple white-space page, then on the opposite page fill it with one photo! Make sure you go for a close crop too.
- Create one page where the background is light and the opposite page with a background color that is dark.
- Repeat colors, elements, and textures throughout the album. - Try and stick to no more than 2 different fonts for your journaling.
- Fill 2-3 pages of your album with full photographs that have creative crops.
You don't have to use this way, it's just the way I look at it, and it works. You all know I can't put myself in a box and say "I only create simple pages" or "I only create fantasy pages." Oh no. I want to do both and whatever other style I feel inspired to work with. And this approach seems to create a more balanced project.
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