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You are here: MacNN Forums > Enthusiast Zone > Art & Graphic Design > some C&C for a wedding album, please

some C&C for a wedding album, please
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OreoCookie
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Dec 29, 2011, 07:02 PM
 
So I'm designing a wedding album for a very close friend of mine and I got most of the flow for the album nailed down (i. e. the sequence of photos, their sizes and how to structure everything).

Currently, I'm working on the design. Basically, I have to design only a few pages which contain text, most of them are dedicated to few, large photos. I also want to have large, chunky text so that it can stand on its own compared to the large photos. I also thought I need a decent amount of negative space to balance the two. Hence my design for the dedications:

My gut tells me that I like it and it's a good basis to start from.

But I got stuck while thinking about the design of the pages that separate »Chapters«. Here is a quick mockup:

I'm not happy with the latter, but I can't quite put my finger on it. It's missing something, but I don't know what. I've tried experimenting by adding more white space or less, but I find that the page that separates the different acts of the wedding is not at all harmonious.

So do you guys have any comments? Feel free to tear everything to shreds (constructively, of course!), including the dedications mockup which I like. In German, there is a saying: »The better thing is the natural enemy of the good thing.«
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P
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Dec 29, 2011, 07:19 PM
 
"The best is the enemy of the good" is how I've heard it (=been told it. Repeatedly, on occasion).

I quite like the design. Not sure what's off, but are you set on that font? The serifs become very distinctive at that size
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
OreoCookie  (op)
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Dec 29, 2011, 07:22 PM
 
I wasn't sure whether the saying exists in English, I always thought it was something German

In any case, thanks for the comment.
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andi*pandi
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Dec 29, 2011, 07:38 PM
 
What is pleasing about the first layout, is the type on the right is on cream, is soft in color, and the word length is short enough so you can see that they are aligned differently. It's elegant. The grey type over it is contrasting without being too overpowering.

The second has a very bright color sideways text, the words are longer and bigger so they take up more space and are more cluttery, the words are overlapping the picture at not quite x-height so create odd white space shapes, and the bride's face is a bit too close to the fold. The lighter grey text is also lost here, both being lighter and with less contrast to the stronger green.

Possible Solutions: make the sideways type: smaller, with tighter leading, in unified color palette shades, and not overlapping the photo. Light grey text a bit darker than the second layout. Crop the picture differently, to give the text more space.

What a great present for your friends!
     
OreoCookie  (op)
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Dec 29, 2011, 08:04 PM
 
@andi*pandi
Thanks for the suggestions.
Originally Posted by andi*pandi View Post
the words are overlapping the picture at not quite x-height so create odd white space shapes
I didn't want it to look clinical nor carelessly positioned, so I put in some space between the edge of the photo and the x-height.
Originally Posted by andi*pandi View Post
in unified color palette shades,
I've got a question about that: up to now, my idea was to re-use colors from the images. E. g. I got the blue from the tie and the green from the ornaments between the groom and the bride. I thought that gives the design a bit more balance and ties the text to the person. For instance, the maid of honor's photo looks like this:


If you disregard the slight difference in placement of the two lines of text (first and last name), this being a mock-up after after all, I thought this to be a nice touch.
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Thorzdad
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Dec 30, 2011, 10:00 AM
 
Using bright colors for the names creates conflict with the photos. Stick to soft, muted tones for the names and let the photos be the focus. None of the names should be any stronger than the light blue you use for Julius. Even the mint green you use for Kirchliche is far too bold.

I would also suggest you play with moving the first/last names closer together...maybe even overlap them slightly. The current gulf between the first/last names bothers me a lot. Or, perhaps, play with one name larger than the other. First name large, last name smaller.
     
OreoCookie  (op)
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Dec 31, 2011, 11:08 AM
 
Originally Posted by andi*pandi View Post
The second has a very bright color sideways text, the words are longer and bigger so they take up more space and are more cluttery, the words are overlapping the picture at not quite x-height so create odd white space shapes, and the bride's face is a bit too close to the fold. The lighter grey text is also lost here, both being lighter and with less contrast to the stronger green.
I've picked a different green and made the overlap between tall letters and image smaller (the image starts just a bit »below« the cap line).

Originally Posted by Thorzdad View Post
Using bright colors for the names creates conflict with the photos. Stick to soft, muted tones for the names and let the photos be the focus.
After reading your suggestion, I have tried using less saturated versions of the red so that it matches the blue of Julius in saturation, but somehow I don't like it.


I've moved first and last names closer together and tweaked the gray of the second layer of text.
Originally Posted by Thorzdad View Post
None of the names should be any stronger than the light blue you use for Julius. Even the mint green you use for Kirchliche is far too bold.
To me, the point of having bold colors for the text was exactly to give the name roughly equal weight to the photo and to balance left and right page. Using more muted colors makes the page spread a little heavy on the left side.
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andi*pandi
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Dec 31, 2011, 02:20 PM
 
I like the lettering relationships much better. I do like the muted colors, and still think those colors relate to the picture and pull the page together the way you intend.

For the section/full page photo pages, there's still too much going on. I like the darker green better than the bright green though. Maybe you could keep the dark green if you cropped the picture over more towards the left.
     
OreoCookie  (op)
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Jan 1, 2012, 09:02 AM
 
I think you guys have convinced me, the more muted version is growing on me, it looks much more cohesive across the four pages (maid of honor, 2 best men and me as the photographer).

You mean something like this:

Unlike with the template for dedicates where I had the impression that this is a good idea that needs some tweaks, somehow I feel the section template looks a bit uninspired, as if something is missing, but I can't put my finger on it.
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Thorzdad
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Jan 1, 2012, 09:47 AM
 
Have you tried using italics for the names and normal for the line under the names?
     
   
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