I was working with a client last evening sorting out their album design, and yet again marveling at PJ Remix. We were looking at what we might do with their design to take it away from the ordinary. The expression Pimp My Album came to mind ... and things went crazy! There were tassels, dice, bling, and all sorts of flame shaped graphics ... quickly recognised as possibly on the absurd side of album creativity. It did get me thinking how I might accessorise my beautiful classic album. I thought I would start a list! The obvious beginning is a case ... there are two available (three if you include To View More >>

It was a very successful evening on Friday for our design agency ALT Group at the New Zealand Design Institute's Best Awards, where they won a total of eighteen awards, three of them, including a Gold, for the rebranding work they did with us last year: The GOLD AWARD was for the overall rebranding and visual identity project, as expressed in our new website, marketing material, logo, product photography etc. SILVER AWARD: For the Queensberry bride book, a promotional booklet designed specifically for our clients to distribute to brides and grooms, to express the Queensberry brand story and highlight To View More >>

Last week was fantastic! Our free design and colour correction announcement generated more comments and support suite enquiries than anything else we've ever done. And it started a lot of conversations with people about how it would work in practice, and how they could use it to increase their sales. What's driving this free service is the change in our industry, with more photographers adopting the line that albums aren't worth the time and aggravation. That attitude isn't new, and we think it's always been nonsense, but the best way to challenge it is to eliminate the "time and aggravation", To View More >>

[caption id="attachment_17731" align="alignnone" width="500"] © James Yeats-Brown[/caption] James Yeats-Brown is a leading UK social photographer specialising in children's portraiture and the creation of family albums. He asks why shooting for a fee or commission shouldn't work in the social sector, since it's common in other areas of photography, and thinks a sales model based purely on speculative product upselling is dangerous these days - mainly thanks to new consumer-oriented products from Apple, Blurb, Photobox etc. This began as a comment on Ian's post suggesting the Shoot and Share model To View More >>

Last week I wrote about the latest David Jay hate war, and said that if a courtroom attorney asked whether I agreed with his Shoot and Share strategy - and demanded a Yes-No answer - I’d have to say, “Yes I do.” Why? Because social sharing is a reality whether we like it or not, because social sharing is a powerful new form of word of mouth, and because Shoot & Share is a big step up the social scale from Shoot & Burn. Also I don't like hate wars. But this is not a TV courtroom drama, so if you're thinking of building a career in social photography, we believe the typical Shoot and Share To View More >>