Someone suggested the other day that Queensberry’s “look” is “classic”, and if you want “hip” albums you’ll need to look elsewhere.

So … how do we plead?

Well yer Honour, on the one hand, it’s true … and on the other, it isn’t!

Why isn’t it true?

It’s your art, we just provide the frame. It’s your album, so if you want hip, make it so. We see plenty of up-to-the-minute designs going through the Bindery, and lots of classic work too. What we suggest is, pick from our paintbox whatever supports your style, and leave the rest to someone else.

Yes, our in-house designers have a particular style — simple, classic, with lots of white space to let the images breathe. Not everyone likes it, and that’s great — and why many people design their own. Vive la difference.

What ends up on your pages is entirely up to you. By the way, that's why we offer more variety than anyone else — matted, flush or book, paper stocks, print technologies and so on. 

And there are so many other ways to customise your album, from designable covers, to wing and flip pages. From titles to fonts to embossings, foils and laser etching. Treat Queensberry as the blank canvas you work on. 

But here’s the case for “classic”

Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, I was hip. OK, hippie! Like today’s hipsters, I had a beard, although mine rivalled Noah’s. So here’s my warning to hipsters. You’re only hip once…

You can lose the beard.

You can move on from cold brew coffee, no problem.

You can toss the cool T-shirt after a few months’ wear.

But that album is supposed to last for decades, and trust me, everything that looks cool now won’t in the future. What it will be is one of three things:

It could be boring (let’s not go there).

It could be laughed at (“What were they thinking?”).

Or it could be respected — because you created it with good taste and an eye to the future.

Finally, be aware that fads spread like the ‘flu. Back in the day speakers would do the rounds, just as they do today, and tell us about the latest look or gimmick … and suddenly everyone would be cross-processing, or making double exposures of the happy couple in a brandy glass, or overlooking the ceremony.

Does that mean everything hip is dodgy? No, no, no! We’re just suggesting you avoid fads and spare a thought for what the grandkids will think. Dylan, Bowie and Grace Jones, Joni Mitchell and David Byrne — they’re all still cool. My grandkids say so.

In a nut-shell, hip or classic, be yourself — everyone else is taken. We’ll have an album for you.

Cheers
Ian