So I took some of all of your advice from the last album post I did. I think its a more elegant design. Although I guess I'm too much of a punk to ever really be elegant!

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Hi, John

For whatever it's worth, I think there is too much variation in your design theme ... nothing that really ties it all together as one, consistent presentation. While there does appear to be a loose connection between the various spreads, I believe it falls apart with the more obvious break in theme at pages 10-11 (the first and only time we see overlaps), and then 22-23 (the first use of that style image layout).

Also, I really believe your images are strong on their own, and those border effects just "cheapen" your presentation ... its introduce a "scrapbook" style element to what should be an impeccable showcase of your work, and the couple's lifetime heirloom.

More subjectively, I just think the various colors further break down the design theme. I would have stuck with white and black, or white and brown, or even white, black and brown. But that one additional brown tone (pages 18-19) is too much. And then there's that "gray" border effect that clashes with all of it. And to top it off, you added a blue font. I understand it relates to the sky color in the image of that specific page, but it has no relation to the complete design from beginning to end.

Great design begins with a firm grasp of design fundamentals and color harmony, and effective placement of elements for balance and connectivity.

Hope you can glean something useful from this.

that is fantastic! Thank you soooo much for taking all that time Bruce. I fear that I'm too lazy to fix this album , however I am designing another right now and am taking ALL of your advice. My problem is that I LOVE how you design these, but I also LOVE sloppy borders , AND i love double borders, AND i love small single line borders. I just never stick to one element, of one style. I'm like all over the place. If you ever had a conversation face to face with me you would see that this is how I am as well. Kind of a mishmosh.
I'm going to post another album in a couple of days, and we'll see how I do.
Thank you again , I really appreciate it.

John, you are very welcome.

While I don't care for the border effects, I didn't mean to imply that they couldn't successfully be incorporated into a design. I'm sure they can, but it's probably their use in this design that doesn't work ... they don't support the overall theme. And actually, I don't think they enhance the images at all, sort of the way textures are overused these days without considering the artistic integrity and emotional qualities of the pure image.

Best wishes to you! I'll keep an eye out for the next one.

thanks everyone