Here is a link to an album that I designed for the WPPI Album Competition. It will be entered in the Event-Non Wedding Category.

Please give me honest feedback on it. I have specifically left it without music because that is how the judges will be viewing it.

Thanks!
Steph

WPPI Album Competition - Non Wedding Event

PS: When it is submitted to WPPI, it will be black all the way off the page. The grey bars on the side of the pages are there only because I designed with WPPI's sizes in mind and my album viewer is designed for a square page book.

Wow...no replies. Is it that bad!?!

Here's my thoughts... take into account that I have never ever designed an album....

I think that "prelude to a life" sounds a little cheesy, plus might stir some emotion about whether life begins at birth or whether it begins at conception.....

I think that the "design" itself is quite simple. Are the judges looking at the design of the book or the story that it tells?

My impression from the contest rules is that it is primarily the story, but that album design will also be judged. I think it is more about the images and the story though.

Thanks for your comment on the title. And your comments in general.

Much appreciated!

Steph

Those of you who are looking but not speaking, please....Speak!!!

If it is horrible, I don't want to submit it for competition. I still have time to redesign, but not much!

If you like it, I would be happy to hear that too!

Thanks!
Steph

If you want honesty....

No, I wouldn't enter it. The design is exceptionally basic, too basic, the tone of the conversions is very unflattering and has too much of a glow (I don't like the conversions at all), some of the photography is fantastic while some of it really isn't good at all, there are lots of images where part of the image is completely blown out and part of it is extremely underexposed - I can't tell if it's a result of the conversion or the photography but I'm leaning toward the conversion. All in all it just doesn't flow well.

I'm not one to give advice on album design, however I do agree that the design is very simple and for purposes of WPPI I'm not so sure it will stand out among the competition. If you have time, maybe you could play with that a bit including the font and some of the photos that seems to have a yellowish tint to them.

The other thing that strikes me is the name. I know with print competition, names carry a lot of weight to the judging and "prelude" doesn't seem appropriate in this case given that only a few pictures of the album are pre-birth. For some reason, I kept getting stuck on your title. The word evokes a thought of the journey up to an event/an introduction - and your album is more of the entire process, not just the prelude - so it felt off to me. As far as telling a story - you've done a great job showing a beginning, middle and end by not keeping the entire story to just the delivery room. For your title - maybe explore that journey more?

As mentioned before, I think the album is on the simplistic side - and fine for clients, but not as powerful for competition. However, that said, I'd also say tell you to fix a few things and go ahead and enter it so that you can dip your feet and see what it is they are looking for so that you can go back next year with all that you've learned. It is never fun having your photo/s be subject to such crucial interrogation (especially during competition), but it is a good way to learn and grow. Either way - good luck!

Thank you both for the critiques! I can't get better at things if no one is willing to step out and tell me what they do and don't like. (You know how you look at something for so long and have such a personal connection to it that you can't see the true flaws in it.)

I really do appreciate the comments and I agree with parts of them. Your input really helps me see it through outside eyes. Obviously we are all biased towards our own work, so I needed critiques that are more along the lines of what a judge might say and think.

Thanks again! And keep them coming! I want to get better, but I can't do it alone!

Steph

Hey Steph...
I wanted to comend you on your willingness to take critique! It takes strong character to be able to do that and you're exactly right... sometimes the hardest advice we recieve is the advice that can hurt the worst because it's not necessarily the stuff we 'want' to hear!

I have to agree with the two previous comments... it's not competition worthy. As you stated, it is about the story but by "design" (no pun intended of course) composition, photo selection, quality of exposure... all elements together help to tell the story and either elicit emotion or it doesn't. I see photos of what I would imagine to be a beautiful event in this couples lives... however, I wasn't moved by it.

The best advice I was ever given (early in my photo career) was this:
Figure out what merits you're going to go with--the gold ones or the green ones?
The gold ones are those that hang around your neck at conventions and are awarded by a select few who propose to be experts in the field. Nothing wrong with that.
The green ones are those you earn from your happy customers who fall in love with your work and continue to come back to you over and over again, willing to pay you for your artistic ability as well as your ability to maintain a life time client! These are the merits that pay your bills!
In the end, what will answer the goal you have for your business and for your life? There is nothing wrong with achievement and having things to show for it... with the kind of attitude you have, I have no doubt whatsoever you'll continue to develop and perfect your craft! You will win the awards because of your desire to continually improve and willingness to hear the critique...

This is not a gold merit winning project but I have no doubt, it's a green or even better, a "heart" merit project! Keep up the great work!!
Therese

Therese,

Thank you so much for your post! You are right...critique is hard to take, but without it improvement is hard to achieve.

I really love the advice about the merits. And I agree whole heartedly. I do pride myself in what my clients say about me and how I can make them feel and those are the merits that matter most to me.

I do want to enter the competition so that I can get "expert" opinions on my work, but I do take what everyone says with a grain of salt. At the end of the day, my clients are the only opinions that matter to me because they are the life of my business. But it never hurts to get more opinions on it as well.

Thank you so much for the critique. I am working on a redesign because I can see what everyone else is saying about it not being competition worthy.

To be totally honest, I wasn't sold on this one either. I tried a very different route from my norm. I learned a great lesson from this post and that is that I need to ignore what has won in the past (last year's non-wedding event winner was a very simple, 1 picture per page, black background, all b&w album) and just go with MY style. I am very competitive and I want to win....but at what cost? Losing MY style in it? It woke me up to what I was doing and even my husband said that this was not an album he would have expected to see from me.

So I am redesigning. I am going back to what I love to do and designing and album that is closer to my vision. Being a doof...I should have done that in the first place! I will post the new design when I get it done. (Hopefully by Tuesday!)

Steph

Steph- I just looked at the album and the other comments seem to hold some weight to what I was thinking, so I'm not going to critique you on the album. I just wanted to tell you that I do greatly commend you on the above statement you made. It's so hard sometimes when entering a contest such as this to do what WE feel is art and not lose our style. It really is something to be proud of for noticing this and re-working the album to define who you are as an artist. Show us when you're done! Good luck!

Way to go Steph... be true to yourself and you will create unique art because it will be a reflection of who you are! It will express the vision and gifts God gifted you with specifically. Everyone has that uniqueness in them that only they possess! I agree with Beth... I commend you for being true to YOU!
I can't wait to see the redesign! I know it's going to be GREAT!
Therese

Beth and Therese,

Thanks for the comments again! But I have another question for you...

Do you ever worry that your uniqueness isn't that great?

It seems that in the last week or so, I have seriously been questioning my abilities. Maybe this is just a side effect of wanting to go to the next level. Maybe it is just a bad self-esteem week. Or my biggest fear...maybe I'm as good as I will ever be.

I appreciate the comments and the confidence that I will come up with something great...but I am afraid that it will just come off as ordinary and boring!

I am sure that my problem is that it has been too long since I have been shooting for me. I am vowing to get out in the next week or so and just shoot something...anything! And do it just for me.

Anyway...just rambling really. But I wonder if anyone else ever fears that they are the best that they will ever be. That they have reached their peak and it will never be any better. And when they look at it....it isn't good enough.

Please tell me that this is just a pre-cursor to growth and that everyone feels this way right before they go to the next level. I am really hoping that is what this is. And I can't say enough that WPPI can't get here fast enough. I need my boost for the year....photographically speaking!

Steph

Just wanted to post that the album linked here is no longer the one that was critiqued here. The link on the top of this post is to the redesign. I will be posting a new post about the redesign, but I just wanted everyone to know what was going on.

Steph