Posts Tagged ‘wedding album design’

Special consideration for Folded Pano Zook Books

Monday, June 13th, 2011

By now you’re probably aware that the folded panorama Zook Book is here. It’s an option many of our customers have wanted for quite some time and we are happy to be able to fulfill that demand. There are, however, special considerations to take into account when preparing a folded pano album.

We strongly encourage you to begin and end your album with full panorama designs if you plan to select the folded pano option. For construction purposes, it is necessary that all pages be full pano spreads. If you begin and/or end with a half pano, we will add a photo black blank opposite your design image. All folded pano albums will open to a black fabric moiré left and right sides, then a blank spread of epic black material left and right, then  your design begins on the following spread.†

There are no changes to the split pano album. You may still begin or end your album either with a half pano mounted facing epic black, or with a full pano spread with an extra, epic black spread preceding it (or following it for last page). Split pano albums also maintain the ability to strip out and replace up to six half panos for repair.

Folded pano Zook Books are available in all sizes up to 12×12 on print-to-bind orders only.

† The epic black page is required on all albums to be mounted back-to-back with the fabric moiré. If photographs were mounted backing up the fabric moiré, the page would likely warp over time.

Designing Your Own Album

Monday, April 25th, 2011

Zookbinders’ Ten Tips for Designing Your Own Albums

For several months we’ve been sharing with you how much easier your life can be and how much more money you can make by utilizing zookie pro, Zookbinders’ new album design and fulfillment service. We of course realize that some of you, whether new to the industry or with many years of experience, do enjoy designing albums yourself. To help ensure you are creating the best possible album for your clients, we’ve put together our top ten design tips. These tips are primarily for flush or collage style albums but would work for matted albums too.

  1. Shoot for the Album. Think about the album as you photograph your event. Be sure to create background images, images that will compliment one another on a page and that tell a story together.
  2. Streamline Your Workflow. If you want to enjoy your album designing, you need to be efficient. If you use Photoshop, use templates and learn short cuts so you can design quickly and make easy modifications. If you are uncomfortable with Photoshop, find a design solution that you do enjoy and is easy to use. There are many options out there and most have free trials.
  3. Organize Your Images. Whether you select the album images or let your client, start your album design by grouping images in separate folders for each page spread.
  4. Keep it Simple. The best designs are simple and let the images take center stage. Avoid needless or too many embellishments, use graphical elements that enhance the theme of the event or layout and that don’t detract from it.
  5. Use a Feature Image. Page layouts with a key image, designed larger on the page, complimented with a series of smaller images is much more interesting that a page with all the images the same size.
  6. Use Negative Space. Just because you have a 12×24 canvas in front of you doesn’t mean you have to fill every square inch. Negative space can be as important to your images in your final design.
  7. Set a Theme. A theme can be the color of your backgrounds and borders, whether or not you use background images or any number of design elements that create a cohesive look to your page layouts.
  8. Selectively Use Color and Black & White. You and some of your clients may prefer all color or all B&W image layouts. To add impact, use these design choices to add drama and emphasis. Imagine how much a color image would pop off the page if it was surrounded by B&W images.
  9. Know When to Break the Rules. Variety is the spice of life.
  10. Post and Promote. Once your layout is approved by your client, post the layout to your blog or Facebook page. Album layouts not only show off your design skills but your photography and ability to tell a story. It’s a great promotional tool.

For those of you who have taken the zookie pro test drive and seen the power of our customized shopping cart, please note that we will be making this cart available to all Zookbinders’ clients later this year when we launch our new ordering system to replace ROES. With this new system, you’ll be able to upload your page spreads and have us create a digital flip book and custom shopping cart for your clients to view their album. They will be able to suggest changes, place their order for their main album and add parent books and framed page spreads to the order as well. Stay tuned for more information as we get closer to our launch date.

A New Era Has Begun

Sunday, January 16th, 2011

zookie pro Goes Live!

It’s here! Zookbinders’ long awaited album design and fulfillment service called zookie pro. This is not just another design service where you, the photographer, are left to make changes and upload your order. zookie pro is a simplified, complete album fulfillment partner in your business.

We’ve talked to literally hundreds of photographers who either are not comfortable designing albums, don’t like designing albums or don’t have the time to handle all of the post production work involved with fulfilling a bride’s desire for an album. We’ve also talked with hundreds of brides who still want an album but are frustrated with the time and effort it takes to get their album.

Starting today, everyone’s frustrations are over. With zookie pro, photographers can climb out of their digital darkroom and get their lives back while still offering a quality album at an incredible value. Brides can get beautifully designed albums for themselves, family and guests at a great price. And best of all, it can happen in as little as 30 days from their wedding day…which REALLY makes brides happy!

Check out zookiepro.com and learn about our great quality products, our simple and elegant album designs, our hassle free workflow and how zookie pro can give you your life back. To celebrate, we’ll be launching zookie pro at Imaging USA in San Antonio, Texas and offering 50% off your first order if you place it now through January 18, 2011 using the promo code LAUNCH11.

zookie pro

It’s About Time

Friday, January 14th, 2011

What time? Time to get your life back. Time to work smarter not harder. Time to outsource. Time to have some fun!

When we started working on the idea of zookie pro, we asked two questions: What do brides want? What do photographers want?

What was the common theme in the answers we found from these questions? Time. Brides were tired of how long it took to get their finished wedding album. Photographers were frustrated by how long they were stuck at their computers editing, retouching and designing albums. So when we thought about what we could do to make everyone’s life easier, the answer was obvious, give everyone more time by simplifying the album making process.

From a business perspective time is one element that most photographers forget about in their pricing equations. With digital technologies, you can literally photograph a wedding with zero product cost (no film or proofs are needed). And for those photographers who do sell albums, they often only look at the cost of the album. But what about your time? How long did it take to market yourself? How long to prep for the wedding? How long to shoot the wedding? How long to do all of your post production? How long to learn Photoshop? How long to design an album? How long to make revisions?

Most photographers spend hours upon hours doing all of this work. Not only do many not charge for this time, they forget an important business principle – opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is what you lose out on while or when doing something else. So if you are one of these photographers doing it all yourself, the opportunity cost of doing it yourself and “saving money” is everything else in your life that you give up.

How do you get this time back? Try zookie pro. The mission of zookie pro is to make your life easier. With zookie pro as your partner, all you have to do is pick out your favorite wedding images, upload them to zookie pro and you’re done. We design the album layout for you, post it online for your review, and upon approval we’ll print beautiful album using real photographic paper and a leather cover. We’ll even drop ship it to your client. Best of all, if you follow our 30 Day Makeover, the happy couple can stay happy by getting their album less than 30 days after the wedding!

Pretty simple eh? Imagine delivering a high quality album with very little effort. Your time will be freed up to spend more of it with family, friends and do the things you love to do. Your clients get their album quickly and with little effort. They now have more time to show off their album and sing your praises. If you’d like to learn more about how you can redesign your workflow and deliver albums in 30 days with very little effort check out zookiepro.com.

What time is it? It’s time to get your life back!

zookie pro goes live January 16th!

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