One thing I’ve really been looking forward to is having albums of my work on hand to show clients. Notice that I said I’m looking forward to HAVING those albums, not necessarily to designing them. I’ll be totally honest- I was COMPLETELY intimidated at the thought of narrowing down 400+ images into 90-100 and having to arrange them in a professional manner.

Part of the problem lay in the that fact that I’d never really seen an album layout that I loved. The only albums I’d seen were really busy, with photo on top of photo on top of photo, and it looked really complicated. Fortunately for me, two of my favorite photographers, Jasmine Star and Katelyn James, have both done several posts each on album design. I was able to take a look at how they do their album layouts and because both of them take a clean, classic approach to albums, I felt a lot less intimidated about starting one of my own. Check out Jasmine’s post on albums here and Katelyn’s SUPER helpful post here!

I knew from the moment I saw Jasmine’s albums that I wanted to use Leather Craftsmen as my album vendor. These books are GORGEOUS! They’re simple, classic, and clean, everything I was looking for in an album vendor. Plus, their customer service is OUT OF THIS WORLD. I was having a really difficult time trying to place my first order but Wanda and Ryan were both amazingly helpful and walked me through the process step by step.

The album you see below is my first sample album, and I’ve already designed my next one (a wedding album!). I can’t wait to have a whole stack of these babies to show to future brides and grooms. It’s the coolest feeling to see your work in print!

 

Leather Craftsmen albumLeather Craftsmen albumLeather Craftsmen albumLeather Craftsmen album
One of my favorite parts about the album are the lay-flat pages. When you design a spread that spans across both pages, the lay-flat feature allows you to see the spread in it’s entirety.

Leather Craftsmen albumLeather Craftsmen albumLeather Craftsmen album
I really like this spread!

Leather Craftsmen albumLeather Craftsmen album

 

Happy Thursday!

Leather Craftsmen albums

October 27, 2011

  1. SO fun. I’m not gonna lie, I was totally turned off to the thought of having a professional album. I scrapbook for fun and I LOVED the idea of little embelishments, stickers, quotes, our actual invitation, wedding program, etc. along with my vows all included in my scrapbook. So I opted to make our own! Now we have been married 4 years and I am almost halfway done with it. I may have made albums for my momma and mother-in-law first, which just delayed my own.

    Ok, I say all of that to say this. Not everyone is like me, and they do not have that creative desire to DIY. So I think this part of your job is SUPER important! I think it would be totally fun to me, it’s like basic scrapbooking and puzzle working to fit the right images on each page (I LOVE puzzles). Great job and I know you’ll just get better at it with time! 🙂

  2. caitlin says:

    ohmygoodness i’ve tried to sit down and figure out how to use LC at least 8 different times. i’m so bad at asking for help though – BUT THIS IS BEAUTIFUL!!

    gah! thank you for posting this 🙂 just the kick in the pants i needed!!

  3. GORGEOUS!!!!!!! this makes me SO excited for you to design ours 🙂

  4. Jean Hensley says:

    Love it! Love it!

  5. Juliann Abercrombie says:

    This album looks incredible, Abby. Thanks for choosing us as the sample :-). We may have to order one soon!

  6. Elizabeth says:

    I love love LOVE this!! So exciting to be able to show clients… it is very impressive! I agree with you about the clean, neat look; I can’t stand when there are a ton of photos on one page, and layered on top of each other… when I have made albums on Snapfish or something, a lot of times I will only do one photos per page, and just have a plane black or white background. I think when it is too busy on the page, it takes away from the photos.

    is this something that you will be able to offer your clients?

  7. Great job! I love the clean, simple pages too. It looks like your first attempt was really successful! And it IS the best feeling seeing your work in print. One that never gets old, I can assure you!

  8. I love LC…they’re so timeless and classic, and their customer service is top notch! I use InDesign to design my album spreads…it’s a lot faster than Photoshop (drag & drop ftw, plus you can make templates) and isn’t a resource hog. I then upload the spreads to Album Exposure, where you can fill out the order form and everything right online. Hope this helps! It’s definitely helped streamline the time-consuming process of designing and uploading 🙂

  9. Melissa says:

    Whooo Hoooo. Great job Abby! I just designed a couple of sample albums and was so freaked out by the idea. I did it though and I can’t wait to see them in print. 🙂

  10. Clarisse says:

    I can’t wait to have ours!!!!!!

  11. David Willis says:

    Love the clean layouts. Wonderful imagery. Great job.

  12. […] blogged about my first Leather Craftsmen album a few weeks ago and I am SO excited to bring you another one! Once I got over my initial fear of […]

  13. Katie says:

    Sooo, I just found this post because I was googling flushmount albums and stumbled on Leather Craftsman…and whose blog did I see at the bottom of their page?? Yours!! Haha! Definitely made me take a closer look at their site knowing you are affiliated lol.

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