Here are some of my favorite spreads from the album … it’s so nice reliving this beautiful wedding through the album.

And here’s the silk bound parent album – notice that these books have a seam down the middle of the page:

And here are the two albums together – the parent album has much thinner pages, so although both books have the same design and page count, the signature album is much thicker and heavier:

And of course I have to share a couple of the spreads too – it’s so fun reliving the wedding day when I design the albums (and it’s *such* a treat getting to look through the finished books before sending them on to their new owners):

Here are some photos of the beautiful books:

I figured it might be useful for comparison to photograph the two books together. The parent album is 8×8, and the main album is 10×10:

And here are some of my favorite spreads from the albums:

And of course I can’t show a guest book without showing a few of my favorite spreads!  Enjoy. 

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I love the look of silver on bronze.  Classy and modern all at the same time. 

The pages lay flat, allowing design across the full spread.  Here are a few of my favorite spreads:

I’m looking forward to designing more of these beautiful albums over the next few months … and I have a couple more awesome sample albums arriving soon, one of which is a massive 20×8 fine art book with a photowrap cover, showcasing some of my favorite images from the last year.  Stay tuned for some photos of that bad boy!

The cover features a full photowrap in a soft matte laminate.  The full wrap means I get to design the whole thing – front, back and spine – and the soft matte laminate is really pretty … and a lot more high end than the consumer versions of these books.

The lay flat pages enable me to design across the seam with very little image loss in the gutter:

And a couple more photos of the open book:

Note that for engagement guest books such as this, I utilize a lot of white space in the design; this is so that your guests have plenty of space to write messages around the photos.  Here are some of my favorite spreads:

And a few more, for fun. 

Will you be purchasing a guest book with photos from your engagement session?  Do you prefer the silk cover (click here for a sample) or the new photo wrap?

The photowrap style means you can have a single photo wrap all the way around the cover, replacing the leather cover.  In this case, I chose one photo for the front and spine, and a smaller, complimentary photo for the back.  I like this design style – it keeps things looking sharp and smart.  Also, note that Karen and Phil ordered two matching parent albums, also photowrap but a different company, in the 8×8 size.  They look good together!

I like posting closeup details of albums to illustrate just how beautifully these things are constructed.  I’ve seen a LOT of albums in my time, and these just can’t be beat!  The pages are thick and heavy, the spine is strong and sharp, the cover is bright and sturdy.  Inside, Kodak Supra Endura paper with UV coating means top quality printing, and the lay-flat panoramic pages mean 100% design flexibility.  Although I often choose not to, it’s nice to know that I *can* design across the seam and not lose any of the image to the gutter.

I’ve been designing a lot of guest books and wedding albums recently, and I’ve definitely refined my design style over the last few months.  I love a clean, simple design with all the attention going to the images:

And a few more of my favorite spreads from this album:

The smaller parent album, a Linear Book, is also leather-bound (in midnight leather), with matching upgrades, but instead of flush mount photographic pages, the images are printed digitally on linen-textured paper adhered to thin board.  Still very cool, but at a more conservative price point, perfect for parent albums.  And, in fact, this particular parent album is not heading over to Seattle; it’s staying right here in Jamaica Plain as a sample parent album to add to my collection. 

Here are some detail shots of the two different covers – it’s hard to show just how spectacular the metallic cover insets are in photos … so you should make an appointment to come view them for real!

And of course I have to share some of the spreads from this album:

And a few more:

There are several features that I love about these albums.  First, they are covered in silk, in a variety of super rich colors (blue, purple, green, red, black, celery and brown).  Second, they are a lay-flat design with a nifty hinge down the center – this makes full-spread design possible, and also makes them look a little cooler than your average press printed product.  Third, they come in a choice of two papers: standard semi gloss which is smooth and silky, or felt, a soft-textured fine-art upgrade.

Amy and Jon’s guest book is a blue silk 8×10 book with the felt paper upgrade.  Look at this gorgeous cover!

It’s hard getting a good representation of the felt paper in a photograph, but here’s my attempt.  It feels amazing!

Yum!  And just for fun, here are some sample spreads from Amy + Jon’s guest book.  I like to design guest books with enough white space to allow for lots of cute messages, but not so much space that it will look empty if a few people forget to sign in.

And a few more … why not? 

The other big difference is that the pages are much thinner – these pages are soft and flexible, like thick card, whereas the Flush Mount pages are much thicker (around 2mm) and more solid.  The image below shows the optional dust jacket.  I recommend adding on a dust jacket if you’ll be carrying your album around with you as it offers a little extra protection.

It’s been interesting watching the reactions of recent clients and other studio visitors when presenting the two album styles.  Most people have a very strong feeling about which style they prefer, with around two thirds preferring the flush mount albums.  I really like both, but I would probably choose the Fine Art book for a high-end guest book upgrade, or portrait album, and the Flush Mount for my wedding album.

I thought it would be fun to show you some sample album designs too – here are a few of my favorite spreads from the Fine Art Album:

I like a really clean, simple design as I feel it enables the story – and the images – to really shine.  Here are a few more spreads from the reception part of the day:

There’s no comparison to seeing the albums in the flesh – so let me know if you’d like to set up an appointment to visit the studio!

© 2009 Kate McElwee Photography