Always more books to share… The Queensberry matted album is a classic choice, even an unconventional wedding appears timeless in a matted book.

Amy and Mike’s elegant wedding at Virginia Crossings Resort is bound in black.  What’s true for cocktail dresses is also true for albums: you can’t go wrong with black.  In addition to a black leather cover, their pages are made of black mats, pagemounts and black edging.  Edging is a curb applied to the rim of each mat for protective and aesthetic purposes.  Edging gives the matted book both heft and a formal appearance, here’s what it looks like:

Because the coloring of Amy and Mike’s wedding warm for fall, we converted all the black and whites in their album to a warm tone as well… meaning the shadows were converted from a blue black to a brown black.  Warm tone black and white is a subtle effect, something more likely to be appreciated on a subconscious level.  Can you notice it in the photos below?

One perk about doing a matted album with Queensberry is that you can maintain a panorama across the layout spread, like so:

And of course, we love the translucent vellum opening pages in our Queensberry books:

Carrie and Ben added contrast to their book of photos from their fun, preppy-cool wedding.  Like Amy and Mike, they chose a black leather cover with black mats but added an ivory pagemount and edging, creating a white border around each matted photo as well as a white binding page.  Here’s what their combination looks like:

Stay tuned for more books soon…

Posted by Mel @ 9:22 pm, in Albums | 1 comment | Permalink

Its February, which means I have gone into album design mode: a state similar to hibernation in bears where an event photographer curls up with a hot beverage in the corner of a coffee shop and goes into a trance while playing what appears to be a strange form of Tetris with album design software as the hours fly by unnoticed.   

Queensberry remains our favorite album makers because of the wide variety of materials and options available for making each book personal and unique.  A couple recent orders included photo front covers: an option where a wedding image is imprinted in the binding itself, magically seamless from the adjoining leather binding.  Photo front covers can be printed across the cover, across 1/2 of the cover or across 1/4 of it.  Both couples featured here chose a 1/2 photo front cover on their 12×12 books, making their albums visually appealing before they are even opened for viewing.  The decision to use black and white imagery keeps their books looking classic:

One nice perk of choosing a photo front cover is that any digital copy albums ordered for parents will have a matching photo front cover free of charge!  Normally you can’t get a cover motif on a copy album so its a great deal.

In addition to having photo front covers, both these books are also duo albums, combining both matted and flush mount pages.  This layout demonstrates a flush mount page for example: the photo of the dining room is mounted flush to the edge of the page:

Duos are great books because matted pages can be included in the same book as flush mount pages.  In fact, flush images and matted images can even appear on the same layout.  In other words, we can make configurations where an image beneath a matt is mounted flush to any page edge, as in the b/w photo on the page pictured below.  We are never confined by the page edge when designing a duo book:

Queensberry also allows matted photos to cross the seam of a two page layout, allowing information to flow freely from one page to the next:

Here are a few more photos of various layouts from both of these albums to give you a sense of the possibilities when you combine both matted and flush images on the same page.  The duo rules…

Posted by Mel @ 10:45 pm, in Albums | 3 Comments | Permalink

Its time to get started on the backlog of books to share!  Given the chill outside, why not cozy up to some coffee table style books?

Amy and William’s preppy spring wedding was made up of several cheery shades of pink and green.  We thought we would add a splash of carnation pink to their book cover and a handful of layouts.  Because our coffee table books are custom designed in Photoshop, we can add just about any color anywhere you like.

 I added a few little boy colors to some of the layouts in Baby Clayton’s brag book.  At a size of 5×5 and therefore perfectly sized to pop in your purse, brag books make perfect for proud grandparents, aunts and uncles.  And our discounts on duplicate books are kind to the pocketbook.

Thanks for checking these out!

Posted by Mel @ 4:52 pm, in Albums | No comments | Permalink

We have been ordering and receiving many albums over the past month and while the final count on our holiday orders isn’t in just yet I can say with certainty that its record breaking!  For those who have been patiently waiting for their design we thank you for hanging in there and for those who are still mulling over the choices, check these out…

We’re a little biased, Queensberry Duo albums are our favorite of the option thus far.  Classic matted pages highlight key photos and portraits while flush mount pages combine images in a way that tells a story while maximizing space.  We love it when our photos can be big and bold across a layout.

We also love the variety of cover options available through Queensberry.  Check out Sally Ann & Clint’s wedding album: their large format aluminum bound album fits their style while the 9×9 parents copy is a little more traditional.

Sally Ann & Clint chose to include wing and flip pages into their design, adding an interesting constructional element.  The closed flip of the procession opens into a panorama of the ceremony and I love how it turned out, I included a detail of the wing too:

Taking photos of the actual album helps to demonstrate some of the details you can’t see in the preview layouts.  Sally Ann & Clint chose ivory mats with an ivory page: the page being the paper the photo is mounted to once its been trimmed just enough to allow the color of the paper to peek out from underneath the window mat.  By choosing the same color between the matt and the page, a depth effect is created.  Here are a few more snapshots from the design layout:

Liz & Greg chose the same ivory mats and pages but went for a 14×10 book for a more panoramic feel.  Like SA&C, they went for a non-traditional cover and chose sand leather, matching the groom/smen’s khaki suits.  They also chose a quarter photo front cover which turned out really beautiful:

I love the design of Liz & Greg’s album, its one of my favorites.  They added a couple pages just to make sure that there was a good representation of both family portraits and the day’s events.  Check out some details and a few snapshots from the layout:

Stay tuned because there have lots more lovely albums to share!

Posted by Mel @ 6:04 pm, in Albums | 2 Comments | Permalink