Zi Studio | LEUXO Albums

Just shipped an album to Corbin Gurkin of Corbin Gurkin Photography. This one’s a real beauty. If I had to pick three words to describe it, they would be: clean, tender, and tasteful.

Here’s a short testimonial from one of our clients.

Thanks again for the beautiful job you did on Adam’s album. I’ll ask my parents if they want a copy when I see them over Thanksgiving.

We are getting very close to making a decision on the grand price winner for our Wedding Album Layouts contest. In the past month, we have received many great entries from very talented photographers. I am including the top 6 below. Each one is different and each one has its own distinct style.

As you can imagine, judging them is hard. It’s hard to look at 6 very different photographic styles and 6 different layout styles and choose a winner. Taste is subjective and a vote is a statement about the voter not the candidate, so how do we be fair?

Here is what we look for:

• Composition – Does everything fit / balance. How does everything flow.
• Quality – Of photography. Are the photographs taken professionally. Angles, poses, setups.
• Feeling – Does the album tell a story. What would a client feel when he/she flips the pages. What would a stranger feel.

In his brilliant book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell describes how people are able to make very accurate predictions  without having a lot of information.  One of the chapters also mentions that sometimes having a lot of information gets in the way of you making an accurate decision, because not every detail is relevant. In fact, most of the time, the first glance of a trained eye is enough to guide you to the right choice. Well, we’re professionals, so let’s see where that takes us.

A Fresh Perspektiv

Bob Miller Photography

Jane Zarzynski Photography

Krista Lee Photography

Mark Eleven Photography

Terra Cooper (Magnifique Photography)

We make luxury photo books and we LOVE good layout design. We looked at hundreds of websites of professional photographers and decided it was time to run a contest. This is a call for entries (with a happy ending).

Here’s what we need from you:

1. Email us your BEST wedding album layout. 10 spreads. JPEG format. 1MB or less per image.
2. Supply the date of the wedding, names of the bride and groom, and the name of the company who made you that album (even if it’s our competitors).
3. Provide any special details about your album – materials used, custom colors, extras.

Here’s what will happen:

1. We will judge your layout based on originality, elegance, and overall flow and quality.
2. We will pick 1 winner and 3 runner-ups. The winner will receive a FREE 9×12 or 10×10 photo book. Each runner-up will receive 50% off any photo book we offer (including upgrades).
3. Even if you are not chosen as a winner, we may publish your layout on our blog so that should get you some extra exposure (everyone loves exposure).

Deadline is October 1st, 2009. Email your layouts directly to me – Vadim@LEUXO.com. That is all.

Since this is our first post, we might as well tell you what a perfect photo book should look like. I know what you’re thinking, “who are you to tell me what to expect from a photo book.” Click here to read our story and find out.

So now I am going to dissect a photo album and tell you what each feature means and why it is important.

A book is not a book without a cover. For the record, you should ABSOLUTELY judge a book by its cover. Our covers are made from all-natural materials, that include, but are not limited to Bonded Leatherette, Hewit Bookcalf Leather, French Chagreen Goat Leather, Harmatan Goatskin, Bavarian Sheepskin, Asahi Japanese Bookcloth, Italian Canapetta Bookcloth, and French Laval Bookcloth. We can also use any of these materials to make a two-tone cover. Image below shows Canapetta Bookcloth cover with angled cover photo.

• Any cover can be decorated with a photo (or two). Photos can be mounted straight or at an angle to give your book a unique look.
• We can heat stamp, foil stamp, or laser engrave your names or a phrase on the top part of the cover or the album’s spine. Depending on the cover material and color, we may suggest one or the other option.

Since I mentioned foil stamping, I will tell you how this is done. When you tell us what you want to write on your album, we create a metal plate of the exact wording (spell-checked beforehand, of course). This metal plate is inserted into a heat-stamping machine, a layer of colored foil is laid beneath the plate, and a heated plate presses the wording and the foil into the cover. We have an extensive array of foil colors so whatever your heart desires, we got it.

When you open your album (from either end), the first and last pages are usually blank. Instead of photographs, you see what is called “end paper”. Traditionally, this end paper was made out of black textured cardboard (some companies still use this outdated technique). In the most recent years, however, it has evolved to include silk, felt, and (what we exclusively offer) Portuguese cork. Image below shows a photo book with cork end paper.

Moving forward, each photo book features a custom made layout produced from the photographs you provide. The completed layout is printed on Kodak Endura professional (matte or metallic) photo paper, mounted on specially designed paperboard or PVC, and joined together in a lay-flat page arrangement. Image below shows an example of this.

When all the pages are printed, they are joined together using nylon hinges. This mean that no matter how many hands your book goes through or how many times the pages are flipped, the entire album stays together just like it was printed yesterday.

Now that that your layout is complete, the pages are printed and bonded, and the cover is finished, it’s time to put everything together. Before we do that, though, there is one last thing left to do – apply gilding. Gilding is similar to foil stamping. Colored foil is heat-applied along the edge of your book. Image below shows a finished album block with sparkled gilding.

Finally, the gilded album block and the cover are put together by hand and you have the finished product. Just as our website says, if the finished book is not perfect, we throw it out and start the entire process from scratch.

If something is not clear or if you have any questions, please email us at Sales@LEUXO.com, or call (847) 329-9242.