Display Preferences: natural album design and layout
Neil March 25th, 2008
Tammy and John’s wedding album custom designed by Neil Cowley.
Tammy and John’s wedding was held at the Genesee Country Museum and this natural organic album design flowed from their gorgeous event. Read the extended post below to see the full design and read Neil’s discussion of the design elements.
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Here you can see the full layout of the photos by Neil & Liesl Cowley of this 70 page album. If you hire both Neil & Liesl to shoot your wedding - you too will have a hard time cutting out enough photos to keep your album to 70 pages.
Creativity in the design
What are your display preferences for album design?

Here you can see one particular spread that pushes the creative envelope for combining original photojournalism style photography and the album design. That’s Tammy’s mom peaking through the hanging dresses on the left and a shot looking through the dresses of Tammy laughing hysterically.

I’m particularly proud that our images are ‘flawless’ enough to be spread across two pages in the album design. When an image is printed 19″ wide full bleed, any imperfections show right up. This romantic image from behind is on of the side moments, that allow for suggestive interpretations and is place at a point in the flow of the album that allows the viewer to catch their breath for a moment as they traverse the pages. This suggestive photo journalistic image asks for a pause and reflection in the transition of the story of the album.

Do photojournalists do group photos? YES, of course! Are full bleed two page photos good design? Yes, all the design intention was put in while holding the camera. To me, the ultimate album would be all double truck images of all the defining moments of your wedding. However, I’m not super-human yet so that does seem a out of reach for us mortal photographers.
The floral design for this Rochester NY area upstate wedding was done by Thrive Flowers.
I look forward to creatively expressing your wedding photos in the album design.








The incorporation of the white picket fence in Tammy and John’s photos is visually stunning and emotionally poignant. Breathtaking!
I’m so excited to see the magic you and Liesl create in our engagement photos!
Michelle and Tim