Thanks to everyone who posted CC for me on the last design for my WPPI album competition submission. If you look at that post, you will see that I realized I wasn't being true to my own style and I decided to re-design with my style in mind.

Again, I am asking for honest feedback and CC about this album. A lot of people looked at my last album, but only a few were willing to risk hurting my feelings to help me grow and I really appreciate them for it. If we are to grow in this business, we have to learn from our mistakes. And we need our friends to help us see the mistakes when they happen.

So please...critique this for me! I have to have the design in CA by Friday, so if I need to tweak anything...I need to know quickly!

Thanks!
Steph

WPPI Album-My Style Redesign

As before, there is no music because the albums will be judged without music.

Steph- I absolutely think you did a fantastic job! It is so much better then the first and you can feel the emotion in it more then the other. From my completely personal opinion would be that I am not sure I love all of the quotes in it. Esp the one on the page of the mother nursing the baby---there is a quote on that page about a father and the father is on the opposite page. The nursing image alone could have so much power in it, that I think the quote really distracts from the quality. All in all, I am so glad that you stuck with who you are as an artist and made this album! Good luck with the competition! You'll have to let us know how it goes.

Thanks Beth! I feel much better about this design. It is much more me!

Steph

hi steph -

i'm not an album 'judge', but i can tell you that the main thing that is judged are the images. (yes, it breaks my heart sometimes). i think your book is lovely, but if you are entering it, you will want to carefully color correct every image and make each one stand on it's own. on my computer - which is calibrated - the images do not look color corrected. each image should stand on it's own, even if it is a 'support' image.

a competition album is not necessarily like the album that you would present to your client. i'm sure they would LOVE this book, however the judges will not. i do NOT want to discourage you at all. (i'm afraid i already may have) i do want you to be aware that the albums will be judged, not critiqued - you will not get a 'why this scored the way it did' kind of report - more than likely, you will just get a score.

have you ever been to an album judging? you will learn a LOT if you have a chance.

some things to keep in mind:
images must stand on their own
images must tell the story (text should nt be necessary)
use text if it adds to the artistic quality of the book, not to tell the story
design should be uncluttered so that the eye goes to the images and to the part of the image that you want to highlight.
re-touching and impeccable presentation is critical
the final submission should be the best of your best work

i am not saying this to be harsh. i think that your book is lovely! i would color correct the images and send the design to compete - see how it does! just be aware of the *few* points i mentioned, and don't be disappointed when you get a score, but no reasons why you got the score you did. i wish they would make comments, but with so many entries, it's just not practical or possible.


good luck!!

Robin,

Thank you for the detailed information!

This is my first album competition, so I am not sure what to expect. I did know that I will only be getting a score and not comments, but I am planning on going to Vegas a few days early for WPPI specifically to watch the album and print judging. (In fact, I think that watching that will be some of the most important information I will see all week. I have had work in competition before, but have never had the opportunity to sit in on the judging! I am really looking forward to that and to hearing the judge's comments about everyone's work.)

I am going to double check my color correction.

Thank you again for the comments. You did not discourage me at all. Overall I am happy with the design and feel that it is very representative of me and my work. Obviously, I still have room to grow...but I will enter it anyway. I need a benchmark to see how much growth I need to achieve right now. My biggest goal with this album is for it to at least get an 80 so that I can see it judged in Vegas. If it doesn't, then at least I know where I stand and it will give me a jumping off point.

Thanks again!
Steph