Blog Book Design Inspiration
It has been a a while since I've had an opening on my waiting list so this website has sat dormant for over a year. Word of mouth and return clients keep me hopping so posting here hasn't been high on my priority list.
I'm sorry to say that openings for new projects are still few and far between (see previous post for books I AM available for), but that doesn't mean I can't pop in and share some of my favorite layouts & some design/blogging tips when I'm waiting for a final book draft to upload to Blurb.com.
Tonight I'm sharing some layouts from one in a series of books that I have been making for a client in Colorado. My hope is that seeing what a difference the ratio of text to photographs has in the feel of a blog book will encourage you to format your blog posts with a potential blog book in the back of your mind.
Vacation posts tend to have an abundance of photographs that can often take up multiple pages in a book. Whenever possible I try to group the text together at the beginning or with one particular photo so the rest of the photographs can be showcased like you see in the layouts below. (The dark gray rectangle that you see at the top and bottom of the screenshot is the spine of the book.)
I am always on the lookout for 'clean space' in a photograph that I can use to superimpose text. I feel like this gives me the best of both worlds - eye catching layouts with the descriptions that are meant to go with the photos.
Wasting space means wasting clients money which is a big no-no in my book, but page after page of my signature 'patchwork layouts' is not ideal either. Instead I strive to strike a balance which to be honest, is often achieved simply by the flow of a blog...some posts have lots of photos and some don't!
Sometimes white space can be just as powerful as the photos themselves.
...and sometimes I use a combination of white space, blocks of text, and patchwork layouts to lead the eye through the story as the author intended.
Remember, a blog is set up to scroll through one picture or at best, one collage at a time with text sprinkled or pooled in varying places in the flow of pictures. A blog book, on the other hand is designed to help a reader take in a much larger portion of the story all at once. They eye travels around and around each two page spread until everything has been processed. If I've done my job right, a reader will keep circling the layouts, picking up new nuances on each pass.
When it's all said and done what matters is that you have invested in preserving memories! I hope I have inspired you to take more photos, write more blog posts, design your own blog book, or hire me if your project fits my current availability.
I made a book a month last year so there are many more samples & tips to come! If there is something you'd like me to cover in my next post please leave your questions and/or topic suggestions in the comments.
