Just wanted a little feedback on my album design. Could you take a look and let me know what you think? This is an LDS wedding, so there are no shots of the ceremony and such.

Album Design here

Click on page 1, then click on the right side of the image to go the next page...

I personally think that you did an awesome job!!! Great feel and so many of the bride and groom. you really tell a story and your layout is good, in my opinion! I would be proud of it!

The only thing that I would consider is all the pages have just a photo or two that could be removed to make the others pop more. They seem just a slight bit too busy. i mean slight... You have done such an awesome job covering all the bases though and I do think it is a great job!

Love it! Very nice mixture of clean pages with the busy ones. Normally busy pages would bother me, but in your case I really like them because I KNOW the bride and groom will love that allbum and cherish it forever! It feels professional and personal all at the same time. Congratulations!

I'm glad that you said that because I am always so timid about busy, but I really loved what he did with these images! i think that it is just soooo awesome!

Thanks for the feedback so far. Yeah, it was a tough balance, especially with the formals that need to be in there, but don't want to take up too many spreads.

Why don't you want to make the formals take up to many pages? The more pages in the book the more money you make right.

I think that spread 7 & 19 are tooooooo busy! I don't know where to look on the page. If it all has to be on one page some of the images should be toned back.

I would also add strokes to the images that don't have any separation from the background.

I bet if you showed them an album with more full-page spreads that was more pages they would buy every page. That’s not a bad thing.

Carl Stevens
www.artists-eyes.com

I don't want the formals to take up more pages because of the type of albums I use and my business model. Basically, I need it to stick to 40 sides. I am evaluating how I'm doing things and will be making some changes, but for now I just need to stick to the 40 sides.

hi Timothy,

first off, great shots and really cute couple!! i don't know what you mean my lds? no wedding?

please don't take the following the wrong way - i just see things that a lot of people do, and i thought i'd offer my $0.02.


first, who will be printing this book? will it be printed as spreads or single pages? the reason i bring this up is, you have left no margin for bleed (printing) or trimming. you will lose a lot of critical elements around the edges, and that gutter needs to be hit perfectly to cut the pages. once you send one to print, you will know why & how far to keep things in - when designing, i suggest keeping ANY critical images 1" from the edge (it sounds like a lot, i know) once you've printd a bunch of books, you will agree. if you are printing a 10x10, you can gat away with 0.75", but a 12x12 has to be 1" - or you will be re-printing.

the second concern is more a balance thing. there are a number of pages where the frames 'could' be balanced or line up, but don't. this tends to make a page look 'sloppy', even if it's not, and makes a page look more busy than it is.

another thing to think about is consistency. it's nice to have variation from page to page, but choose one type of design element and keep it through out. you have pages with frames or borders around images and other pages where there are none. choose one direction and stick with it. it's just my preference, but i don't care for images that run together - sometimes it works, but a little goes a looooong way, and will make a page look busier than it is. you need at least 'window panes' to separate the photos. (i don't know the right name for these, but that's what i call them.)

finally, break up your formals. instead of jamming them all on one spread, do a page with a single image of the b&g and formals on the opposite page. breaking it up this way makes the formals look like they belong. this is their FAMILY - they want those images. and they should be beautifully included, not jammed in there because they have to be.


finally - the shot of the couple in the car is killer - get those other pictures off there. that is a stand alone pano - don't complicate it. (don't be afraid to leave something out) one strong image like that speaks for itself.

one more thing, make a decision about the size of the book - either choose the number of pages, or the number images. you can't do both (imho). i'll expand on this is a new thread (i don't want to jack this one)

nice job - just tighten it up a little.

Thanks for your thoughtful comments, they are very helpful.

LDS=Latter Day Saint AKA Mormon. The ceremony is performed in a temple (in this case the Salt Lake City Temple) where there is no photography allowed.

The images will be printed 10x10 and put together in a self-mount album.

thanks for the clarification on the lds.

depending on the printer, you will have about 2% bleed - that equals about an 1/8 of an inch all the way around the image. (i use whcc) also, if you print them as 10x10s for self-mount, you might want the print the panos as a 10x20 and cut them in half or the images will not line up. (again, because of the overprinting or bleed).

Thanks, that is very helpful. I was deliberating the 10x20 v 10x10, and you've answered it for me. Time to pull out the X-Acto knife...

depending on who prints it, they will cut them for you. you need a really clean cut. i mentioned whcc, since i use them, but Kessler color lab has very good service and they do the self mount books. if you have never done a self mount, you may want them to print and stick the pics - they'll do a great job.