+ Storytelling: Albums +

After the wedding, your album is one of the only things you’ll have to go back to and relive what happened. Ever since my dad was in the business, I would watch his meetings with his clients after their wedding and they would go over their favorite images to finalize their wedding story. Looking back as a child now, I can see how far albums have come, and what it means not only to get your album to you, but to make sure this time capsule is something my couples will open on a daily basis and remember the good times.

Telling a story through layout and design isn’t easy. It’s tough work actually. There have been many trends in layout design that have come and go. The GOAL is for your album to be timeless and real. As you flip through each page, all you should think about is that moment and all the work that went it. Your album should be fun to look at and most importantly, it should be a reminder of the bond between you two. It’s a journey to find your own particular style in layout design, but here are a few more tips that work for me.

1. Simplicity - Traditional albums start out with a single image per page. This means that your photos should be able to stand alone on one page and evoke an emotion for the viewer. Sometimes throwing out too many images on a page can take away from story. The hard part about designing with multiple images is making sure each image has a significant connection to all the other images. This is a perfect example where less images actually better convey the story line.

2. Storyboard - Story-boarding is all about sequencing. If you ever feel lost when designing your album, just break it down by sections. Allot an x amount of pages to each section of the story. For example, think about how many pages you want to create for the prep, portraits, preceremony, ceremomy, formals, and so on. If you outline, you may not feel so overwhelmed about how you’re going to tell such a complex story. Don’t stress!

3. Study - You are a student of life and photography. Open those books or head over to Borders and do some research on graphic design. This will help you find your style and also teach you how to shoot better at the same time. Grab some coffee! It’ll be a long day!

4. Service - Make sure your clients have a major part in the album process. When they receive the finished product, you want to make sure there are no regrets, and that they’re totally happy with all the images that were chosen. I work together with all my couples to ensure that each design is unique and their own. I pride my business on getting the album to my clients as quickly as possible. They hire me for my ability to tell a story, and the album is one of the main things I love giving back to them for choosing me.