Why Wedding Album Design Is An Art Form In Its Own Right
While graphic designers enjoy the reputation of being funky, forward thinking and creative as well as having an enjoyable and modern job, those that specialize on wedding album design seem to have a reputation less positive in almost all respects. This article tries to explain why this is an unfair perception and why designing wedding albums is an art form in its own right.
To begin with, lets look at why the reputation of "normal" graphic designers is so astonishingly positive. I, when picturing a typical graphic designer, imagine a young girl, in funky clothing, stylish haircut and facial piercing sitting on an aluminum laptop in a coffee bar. This is due to the fact that this profession has undergone a technical revolution in the last 15 years away from doing things manually to doing them on the computer. At the same time the internet has grown in importance, which has further increased the reputation of graphic design as being "cutting edge". After all, one needs only two people to create a website: a programmer and a graphic designer.
Why have those trends seemingly bypassed those graphic designers that specialize on wedding album design? Until recently, the incredible multitude of design and typography options available on the computer was not transferable to wedding albums, because those where limited to containing plain photographs. This has changed with the rise of digital wedding albums. With digital wedding albums the wedding album designer finally can create whatever design he likes and it can be transferred to the wedding album one to one. I hope, this development will on the long term have a positive effect on the reputation of the wedding album designer.
Furthermore, there are some skills a good wedding album designer needs to have beyond what a "normal" graphic designer has to offer and this is where I want to make my main point, namely that creating good wedding album design is a true art form. A well-made wedding album design
recounts the story of the wedding day accurately, while capturing the emotions of the people involved and reflecting the general atmosphere of the day. This is what makes good wedding album design very difficult and requires real talent. Every wedding has a different story to tell with unique people and a unique atmosphere. A wedding album designer with a good feeling for how to convey those things in his wedding album design is in my opinion a true master of his field and a great graphic artist.
To begin with, lets look at why the reputation of "normal" graphic designers is so astonishingly positive. I, when picturing a typical graphic designer, imagine a young girl, in funky clothing, stylish haircut and facial piercing sitting on an aluminum laptop in a coffee bar. This is due to the fact that this profession has undergone a technical revolution in the last 15 years away from doing things manually to doing them on the computer. At the same time the internet has grown in importance, which has further increased the reputation of graphic design as being "cutting edge". After all, one needs only two people to create a website: a programmer and a graphic designer.
Why have those trends seemingly bypassed those graphic designers that specialize on wedding album design? Until recently, the incredible multitude of design and typography options available on the computer was not transferable to wedding albums, because those where limited to containing plain photographs. This has changed with the rise of digital wedding albums. With digital wedding albums the wedding album designer finally can create whatever design he likes and it can be transferred to the wedding album one to one. I hope, this development will on the long term have a positive effect on the reputation of the wedding album designer.
Furthermore, there are some skills a good wedding album designer needs to have beyond what a "normal" graphic designer has to offer and this is where I want to make my main point, namely that creating good wedding album design is a true art form. A well-made wedding album design
recounts the story of the wedding day accurately, while capturing the emotions of the people involved and reflecting the general atmosphere of the day. This is what makes good wedding album design very difficult and requires real talent. Every wedding has a different story to tell with unique people and a unique atmosphere. A wedding album designer with a good feeling for how to convey those things in his wedding album design is in my opinion a true master of his field and a great graphic artist.
