Using the BTP Graphic Design Packs

by Stacey Wiseman | Feb 12, 2019 | BookWright, Description, Inspiration, Motivation, Photo Book Design Layout

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

One of my goals this year is to flex my graphic design muscle. It’s been a while since I’ve focused on how color, font styles and patterns can come together to customize a photo book. And with everything in life, one only improves with practice.

So this year, every month I’m creating free graphics – that includes color jpegs + CMYK values, font ideas and several patterns – to help “dress up” your photo book. My graphic packs are free during the month they are released and then will be in my shop for $10 when the month concludes.

While every download comes with general instructions, I thought it would help to see how exactly you can use these graphics to transform your photo book from blah to amazing.

Import and use the graphic images from the design pack you want to use in your photo book just as you would any other photo.

If you’re new to making photo books, I recommend Blurb’s BookWright free software tool (clicking this link will support Book This Project) and you should definitely check out my workshop, Document Your Year. This workshop shares everything you need to know to make a beautiful photo book for your family.

Once you download the BTP Graphic Design Pack you may be thinking, “This is great….but now what do I do with them???” So I wanted to share 12 layout examples to show you how the BTP Graphic Design Pack can make your photo book amazing. These examples are just to get your creative juices flowing. There are so many ways you can use the colors, fonts, and patterns in the graphic design pack to make your book a perfect reflection of your design aesthetic.

I’ll be sharing more examples on Instagram – make sure to follow me here. And I’d love to see how you incorporated the graphic elements into your own photo book. Simply use the hashtag #btpgraphicdesignpack when you post a screenshot of your example.

In these examples, notice the scale, placement, and mixing of different elements are incorporated on the page.

Sign Up to get the current free BTP Graphic Design Pack.

Check out other BTP Graphic Design Packs.

10 Steps to Making a Photo Book This Fall

by Stacey Wiseman | Oct 10, 2018 | BookWright, Description, Inspiration, Photo Book Design Layout, Photo Book Design Workshop

If you’re looking to make a photo book this year, now is the time to start thinking about it. The earlier you get started – and start making decisions – the better off you’ll be to actually finish a photo book in time for the holidays.

Imagine spending a little bit of time here and there working on your photo book over the next few weeks so when January 1st rolls around, you’ll be able to place your Christmas through New Year’s Eve photos into layouts and then print your photo book. Sounds nice, right?!?!

All it takes is a having a game plan that you can follow step by step.

Today, I’m sharing ten steps, with relevant resources, to walk you through 10 steps to documenting your favorite family photos from the year into a concise and beautiful photo book your family will treasure for many years to come.

STEP 1

Define what you want.

While it sounds easy, one of the most common steps people overlook is defining what type of photo book before they get started. It’s so important that you know what type of book, how big, what type of cover and what photo book company you want before you even begin looking at photos or thinking about layouts.

First step is to research different photo book companies to understand what kind of photo book will work best for you, your family, and your photos.

If you’re prone to overwhelm at the beginning, I recommend my free workshop that will help you find the insipiration to start, the motivation to keep going, and design ideas to make your book creative.

Target Time Frame: Define what you want for your photo book within one week.

STEP 2

Get Organized.

Depending on how Type A you are with your photo organization, this first step could take some time. But it’s so crucial and will set the foundation that you’ll appreciate long after you print your photo book.

Before you even get started with selecting photos or laying out your pages, you first must organize your photo library. This means importing all of your photos from the year into one place. All of your photos from your smart phone, dslr, film and any other camera you own should be in one library.

Target Time Frame: Have your photos together and rated by the end of October.

STEP 3

Set up Systems.

If you’re anything like me, life does not provide you with unlimited time to start and finish your goals one at a time. Wouldn’t that be nice? Truth is, we all have multiple projects, family demands, and other commitments competing for our time.

And making a photo book is not easily accomplished within a day or two, unless your photo library is extremely organized (see step 2) and you have a very limited scope such as making a photo book of your favorite summer vacation photos.

To stay with your photo book project through the many starts and stops you’ll experience over the next few weeks/months, I recommend setting up a simple system you can follow.

When I use the term systems, I want you to set up a process for working on your photo book in a logical way that you can track. Being able to track – tell where you left off – is the key part to developing any system.

Refer to this blog post to see how I use one free tool to keep track of my photo book progress.

Target Time Frame: Define your system by the end of October.

STEP 4

Select Photos.

Selecting photos is without a doubt the hardest step. Our photos are so personal and each photo we keep is for a particular reason. This makes it so difficult to figure out which photos you should actually select for a photo book.

Sometimes it helps to see how and why other people select photos for a photo book. This blog post outlines 2 important factors to consider when selecting photos. If you’re curious to see how / why I selected photos from everyday moments in my life, I’m sharing 4 videos illustrating how I select photos for a particular layout.

While I provide several tips and strategies for selecting photos in my workshops: In 100 Pages and Document Your Year, my main piece of advice for those indecisive photographers (raising my own hand) is to select photos that are the most representative of an event, emotion, or experience.

And don’t dwell on the photo you didn’t select. Years from now you won’t remember the photo you almost selected. Instead, you’ll remember the moment/event because of the photo you did select.

Target Time Frame: My challenge for you is to select photos for a photo book every single week. Start with photos from one day. You’ll realize, the more you get used to selecting, the faster you’ll get. Promise. 😉

STEP 5

Understand the Program.

If you’ve never made a photo book before – or it’s been several years – I recommend you open up and practice a couple of layouts with the company/design software you’ve selected in Step 1. While most of the free design software is pretty intuitive, it really helps to understand the setup and various tools you can use as you design your pages.

If you plan on using text – either as page titles, captions or page numbers – test this feature as well. You’ll get a sense of how easy it is to add text and your practice will confirm if this is something you actually want to accomplish with this particular photo book.

While practicing a few layouts ahead of time seems like an extra step, it will save you time once you’ve selected photos and are ready to start designing pages.

Target Time Frame: Open up the software and design a few test pages by Thanksgiving.

STEP 6

Layout Pages.

Once you have a good number of photos selected, it’s time to start designing some layouts! For this step, you don’t have to wait until all of your photos have been selected before you start designing your pages. In fact, starting to layout pages could help you select photos. You’ll start to understand what types of layouts you prefer and what photos work best in those layouts.

Check out this email series for layout design inspiration.

Target Time Frame: Starting designing layouts in mid-November and continue designing throughout December.

STEP 7

Add a Sense of Style / Design.

If you’re designing a photo book, particularly when you’re customizing your layouts, I recommend adding a sense of style or design intent to your photo book. This can be as simple as adding page numbers, a color, an interesting font or more elaborate design elements such as unusual margins or design graphics.

For those who want a small bit of interest to their layouts without going overboard, I recommend my photo book template for BookWright: Catalog Collection. This template was designed to give your photos an editorial look that you see in magazine or clothing catalogs. It’s a great way to get started with interesting layouts to showcase your photos.

Target Time Frame: Add design elements in December and the beginning of January.

STEP 8

Design a Cover.

I always wait to design my cover until the very end because I like for it to fully represent the entirety of the photo book design. Photo book covers can be simple – such as a family portrait – or more complex with an attention-grabbing design. The goal is for a cover to capture the spirit and vision of a photo book and entices family and friends to pick it up from the coffee table when they are visiting your home.

For photo book cover inspiration, check out my Pinterest board for photo book covers.

Target Time Frame: Design your cover at the end of the January.

STEP 9

Review your Photo Book.

Once all of your layouts are finished, it’s time to review your photo book before you upload. I can be pretty obsessive with checking photo books so take my recommendation with a grain of salt, but I recommend checking your layouts several times.

Start with a review of layout in the preview mode. Then I do a spell check of the entire document. In case I spell “their” when I mean “there”, I read through every single caption. Once all of the basic checks are completed, I check one last time in preview mode.

Target Time Frame: Finish your review at the beginning of February.

STEP 10

Order your Photo Book.

At last, it’s time to order! After weeks of organizing, selecting, designing and checking, it’s now time to order your photo book.

Target Time Frame: Order your book at the beginning of February.

While I’ve tried to cover the necessary tips to get you started….I still have more to share! If you loved this post, you’ll love my self-paced workshop: In One Hundred Pages.

10 Easy Ways to Use Color in your Photo Book Layouts

by Stacey Wiseman | May 13, 2018 | BookWright, Color, Photo Book Design Layout

Once springtime arrives and flowers start blooming, I yearn for some vibrancy in my photo book layouts. Yes, there’s usually color in the photos, but I’m talking about a consistent and thoughtful use of color to make the photos pop or add a little something extra to the page.

Today, I want to share 10 easy ways to add color to your photo book layouts. If you’ve wanted to add color but not sure how or if it never looks quite right on the page, this post is for you! Hopefully, you’ll walk away with easy strategies to incorporate into your photo book.

1. A BLOCK OF COLOR TO COMPLEMENT THE PHOTO.

Use a color to reinforce the spirit of the photo. In this example, I added a color block that is complementary to the range of blues in the photo but it also adds to the sense of vibrancy, sunshine and overall attitude of boldness found in the photo.

2. A BLOCK OF COLOR FOUND IN THE PHOTO.

Use a color that is found in the photo. Perhaps one of the easiest ways to use color is to use an eyedropper tool to pull out a color you want to reinforce. In this example, I could have selected a green color and that would have heightened the sense of peaking in on my son playing with his nerf gun. However, I chose to select a color similar to his shirt and nerf gun to highlight the center of the photo and the activity.

3. COLOR IN THE TITLE.

Use color in a title to describe the photo. This takes care of two things at once: color and a description of your photo. Here, I picked up the red trim from her bathing suit to make the title stand out among the waves.

4. COLOR IN THE TEXT.

Use color for a specific selection of text you want to highlight. If you plan to use captions throughout your photo book, adding color to the main part of the sentence or paragraph helps to draw the eye to that specific group of words. This is great for people who are skimming through the book to pick up a few key points without having to read the whole caption.

5. COLOR INDICATING THE MONTH.

Use a color block in a similar location on every page to indicate the month. You could use a different color for each month or keep it the same color and switch out the text indicating the month. The color block could be a rectangle or triangle at the corner of the layout or you could use a full width band of color at the edge as shown in this layout.

6. COLOR INDICATING THE PAGE NUMBER.

Use a color font for the page number. This is a very simple way to add color to the layout without it becoming overwhelming. And the great thing with color for the page numbers, is usually you only have to set it once and it repeats the color throughout your book. In this example, I added a small line underneath the page number to add a little extra color!

7. COLOR ON THE SECTION DIVIDER.

Use a color or color combination to specify the different sections of your photo book. In this layout, I’m using a soft gray color with a yellow font to announce each month. The full layout of a color, even a neutral color, makes it very clear when starting a new month in your photo book.

8. COLOR AS A FRAME TO THE PHOTOS.

Use a color to frame the photos in your photo book. This suggestion may be harder to achieve depending on the type of software program you are using, however, adding a thin frame of color around your photos makes them stand out and provide a little more definition on the page.

9. COLOR AS A LINE.

Use a line color in your layouts. Having a simple thin line graphic on the layout add a level of sophistication without a lot of effort. In this example, I created a double line – one thicker and the other dashed – for additional interest. I love how the line graphic in this layout immediately makes her shirt and the piping on the pillow at either end of the photo stand out.

10. COLOR IN A GRAPHIC.

Use a color in graphic or pattern. If you make your own or have purchased your own, adding color to the pattern is a fantastic way to elevate your layouts. The graphic doesn’t have to extend on the whole page or spread. In this example, I’m using a simple line graphic on the left side to provide interest without taking over. A great way to use graphics are on section pages but you could also find ways to incorporate them on regular photo layout pages as well.

So those are my 10 ways to add color to your layouts. Perhaps this sparked a few ideas or spin-off ideas for your own photo book. I’d love to hear in the comments below!

Two Key Strategies for Selecting Photos for a Photo Book

by Stacey Wiseman | Aug 12, 2017 | BookWright, Inspiration, Photo Book Design Layout

What is one of the biggest reasons people do not finish their photo book? Photo selection.

I hear it over and over again from people who have a hard time finishing – well, even starting – their photo book.

It’s easy to understand why. We become so connected and personally attached to our photos, it’s difficult to look at them with an objective eye. I completely understand. As someone who designs photo books for myself and others, it’s much easier for me to select photos for my clients than it is to select my own photos for a book.

But never fear! I have two key strategies to help you select photos for a uncluttered photo book.

1. Message

The first strategy is to define what is the message you want to convey for a particular day, event, moment? What is the perspective you want to come across when viewing a particular set of photos?

You could focus on the action of an event. Or interaction. Or facial expressions.

Any of these work. It’s just a matter of defining the message you want for a set of photos to be placed in your photo book.

2. Hierarchy

Once you’ve figured out what message you want to convey, it’s time to decide the hierarchy of the photos.

Hierarchy is an important concept in design that essentially establishes order within the design elements. This can also help as you select photos because you can decide what photo is the most important to convey the message you want to convey and what, if any, photos need to play a supporting role.

In some cases, you may only need one photo to convey the main take-away message you want. Or you could have several photos that play an equal role in developing the message. Other times, there is one photo you want to feature with other photos to support the main photo.

Think about this typical photo-worthy event: documenting a visit from your kids’ grandparents. Here are three likely scenarios:

1. Emotion. Select one photo from the visit that highlights your the excitement felt during the visit. It could be the initial hug between them when the grandparents first arrived.

2. Interaction. If you wanted to focus on the interactions throughout the visit, you could select two photos that feature your favorite two moments – such as reading a book together and eating lunch together. In this example, you don’t have to select a photo for every single interaction; just your two favorite.

3. Activities. Let’s say this was a longer visit than normal and a lot occured during the trip, it may be hard to select one or two photos. In that case, you may want to create a collage of images, 8-12 photos, documenting the visit. For this example, select the strongest photos that best describe the visit so it doesn’t become too overwhelming once they are placed in a layout.

Example

Sometimes it takes seeing an example – from selecting photos to designing the layout – to make everything click.

First, let’s start with the photos in my catalog for a particular event – a family weekend at my mom’s where my daughter had a blast playing with her cousin.

From the 32 photos above, I selected my favorite 9 photos. Already, I’ve narrowed it down to a quarter of the original photos making it easier to define what it is I want to say and the best way to say it.

With these 9 photos, there are several ways I could select and design a layout based on what message I want to focus on and the order required to best tell that story. Below are three different examples.

EXAMPLE 1

This layout features all 9 photos….because sometimes it’s too hard to keep narrowing down the photos! But you’ll notice, even in this layout with all of the photos, there is still a message and hierarchy.

Message: Quantity – By keeping all 9 photos, I’m prioritizing the amount of time they spent playing with the exercise ball because they were having such a fun time.

Hierarchy: Two of the photos are featured at a larger scale than the others in the layout. These were my favorite photos from the moment. They both focus on the interaction and bond between the cousins. Also, notice how the page on the left is only of the cousins and the page on the right is all of the photos with the exercise ball. This adds order and purpose to the collage.

EXAMPLE 2

Message: Play. In this selection, I’m focusing on their play to highlight their interaction. I wanted to seelct photos that best exemplified them playing together.

Hierarchy: My goal was to find four images of them tangled together (placed in a grid) to contrast that with one photo – my featured photo – of their interaction where we could see their faces.

EXAMPLE 3

Message: Action. This selection is all about the action – specifically a before, middle and after. Focusing on the action made it really easy to narrow photos. Here, it’s not necessarily about showing everything. Instead, I’m zeroing in on one before, middle, after set of photos to encapsulate the gist of this particular moment.

Hierarchy: When designing the layout, each of the photo boxes are the same size and arranged in a linear fashion to reinforce the action conveyed by the photos. The result is a clean, simple layout.

WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT

HIERARCHY IN DESIGN?

BECOME A BTP PHOTO BOOK CLUB MEMBER.

This month’s lesson features how to use hierarchy to create layouts, select photos and use text on photo book covers. When you sign up, you’ll get access to all of the lessons in 2017 plus access to a private facebook group.

LEARN MORE.

When and how to use a color background in your photo book

by Stacey Wiseman | Jul 10, 2017 | BookWright, Family Photographs, Photo Book Design Layout, Q&A, Tutorial

I want to start from the beginning of this post with the acknowledgement that adding color to your photo book can be a tricky and ultimately, it is a personal preference. There is no right or wrong answer. But I also understand it’s common to seek advice or suggestions on possible ways to attempt color. So when a Photo Book Club member asked me this question, I thought it would be a perfect time to address my thoughts in a blog post.

White Background versus Black Background

My personal preference is for a plain white background because it conveys a clean, fresh, modern look to my photo books. Because I frequently incorporate a mix of color and black/white photographs, the white background appears more neutral.

When I’ve seen successful photo books with a black background, it’s typically for books containing a majority of black and white photos with high contrast – or – to create photo books a dramatic, enveloping mood. With a black background, it is easier to establish a high level of contrast or striking difference between the photos and the page.

An easy way to think about this is with interior spaces. I’m sure if you’ve been around pinterest, picked up an interior design magazine or watched HGTV at all, you’ve seen light and airy living rooms with clean white walls and maybe you’ve come across a more dramatic living room with dark walls. (And of course, all of the varying shades of paint color in between….but for this example, I want to stick with the extreme ends of the spectrum.)

Look at these two examples below found on pinterest. Are you immediately drawn to one example? What do you like about it? What feeling or emotion does it invoke? Or if you are indecisive like me and feel drawn to both – what are the characteristics of each that you like and how does that start to shape your vision?

As you’ll notice, both examples work yet they illustrate a different vision. And this is what is great about photo books because you can create different moods or visions based on the content or photographs.

For example, if you’ve returned from a tropical vacation and wanted to make a travel book of your photos, chances are you’d have a lot of colorful, vibrant photos. The colors in the photos may pop more against a white background. A black background may overwhelm the photos.

On the other hand, if you wanted to make a photo book of your street photography, those photos may have a high degree of contrast and stark divisions between the bright whites and deep blacks. A black background will help ground and immerse the photos and almost create a more intimate experience in which to view photos.

Comparing White and Black Backgrounds

However, things are not always immediately black and white. In my Photo Book Club, I have a video sharing three photo book examples that flip the advice in the previous section on it’s head. Just because something may be the norm does not mean it’s the absolute.

As I mentioned at the beginning, using color really does come down to personal preference. So, I thought it would be fun to share two layouts with both a white and a black background for you to determine what you think works best.

Creative Use for a Color Background

If you prefer white backgrounds but want to try color or a color variation on some pages, a great idea is to create a color section of your annual book to highlight a vacation or a particular photography project. This sets these pages apart from the rest of your photo book without having to commit completely to a particular color.

The great thing about using a color background on important pages, particularly if it covers a decent amount of spreads, you’ll be able to quickly find this section of your photo book by looking at the edge of the book.

In my recently released Catalog Collection photo book template, I spent quite a bit of time analyzing catalogs and one of the things I noticed in a J. Crew catalog was their use of a white background for the pages featuring women’s clothing. For the men’s clothing, the pages had a small black border around the edge of the page. It created a bit of separation without it becoming too apparent. True to their brand, it was classic, refined, structured, and intentional.

How to Add a Color Background

Now that we’ve covered why and when to use color backgrounds, the next step is to help you with how to add a color background to your photo book. In this video tutorial, I’m showing how you can create a color background in BookWright and InDesign.

Going from BookSmart to BookWright

by Stacey Wiseman | Apr 10, 2017 | BookWright, Photo Book Design Layout

A while ago, I wrote about how Blurb is no longer offering BookSmart in their program offering. You may still be able to open and upload a book you’ve already started….but I’m not sure that will always be an option in the future. And I recommend testing out the upload process within BookSmart at the beginning before investing time in a photo book that can no longer be uploaded for printing.

But all is not lost! There’s a way to import your BookSmart photo book into BookWright – either to keep working on a book-in-progress or to use your favorite layouts for your next BookWright photo book.

I don’t have insider knowledge but BookWright definitely seems to be the direction Blurb is heading. It’s missing a few features I love (text styles and setting an aspect ratio to photo boxes) but there are great things about BookWright that were missing in BookSmart (ability to work in a spread format, auto alignment, and custom margin guides).

If you’re ready to take the plunge but don’t want to start completely from scratch, this tutorial will show you how to transfer your finished BookSmart photo book into BookWright.

01

First, you want to make sure you’ve downloaded the BookWright software from Blurb. It’s free and you can get the download from their website.

Once you’ve downloaded BookWright, launch the program.

You’ll want to select “BookSmart / Bookify Users Import”.

02

Next, you’ll need to sign in with your Blurb account. Since you are importing from an already completed and uploaded photo book created in BookSmart, you should already have an account.

03

A window will pop up with all of the books you’ve made with BookSmart or Bookify. If you only want to select from the books you’ve made in BookSmart, there is a pull down menu to narrow your choices.

Keep in mind, these are books that have already been uploaded from BookSmart to your online Blurb dashboard for print.

04

Next, your photo book is converting into a format that you can open from BookWright. Check your email (associated with your Blurb account) to find out when the conversion is ready.

05

The first photo book I tried, it did not work. You’ll notice in the email, the project is titled “null” not the name of the book I selected. And when I downloaded it, the file was a text file, not a BookWright file. If this happens to you and you really need this particular book, I recommend you contact Blurb customer support. In my example, I selected another photo book with my favorite layouts to convert.

06

The second book project downloaded perfectly. In this email, there is the appropriate book name and when I clicked the link, a BookWright file downloaded. Once the file has fully downloaded, all you have to do is double click and it will open within BookWright.

07

First, it has to update to get ready for BookWright.

08

Then it finally opens!

09

This warning lets you know that there might be slight adjustments to the layouts based on updated photo book sizes. This could be a very minimal (read: unnoticeable) changes. My guess is that it may affect the centering of layouts but is most likely not anything you need to worry about. To be safe, I recommend flipping through the layouts before you save or print just to make sure.

10

All of the photos that were included in BookSmart project automatically carry over into the BookWright program. This is great if you had a few adjustments to make and wanted to finish a book in BookWright.

11

One thing that did not carry over was the text style. The font switches to a standard font within BookWright. This is an easy adjustment….if you don’t have a lot of text in your photo book project.

12

In this example, I simply changed the title in the text box and updated the font style to something I wanted.

13

One of the best reasons to open up a BookSmart project into BookWright is to save your favorite layouts and structure for your next photo book. To accomplish this, simply delete the photos from the boxes to create a blank layout. Then click “Save Layout”.

14

Finally, select if you want to save the left page, right page or the entire layout as a spread. This will place this layout into your “My Layouts” pull down menu. Go through the entire book and save your favorite layouts that you’ll want to use again.

After you have saved your layouts, delete the pages you no longer need and delete the photos from from the Photos tab.

Now you are ready to start your next book project, in BookWright, with your favorite layouts at the ready!

Learn how to be more creative with your BookWright layouts. Get 5 ideas to go from blah to exciting with your photo book layouts.