Like most creative projects, creating a family history book is immensely satisfying, and the result needn't be dull or boring. Remember Me by Lesley Graham just blew me away. Because it's so stunning, today's post is the first of a new series here at Before My Time, in which I'll feature family history books I've happened upon which may inspire you with new ideas for your own book project.
Described as "a thesis design book that focuses on memory loss and the journey one might face," Remember Me is utterly compelling. I am a big fan of "grunge" style, but like any design element, it has to serve the project it lives in first and foremost, or it's just visual clutter. In Remember Me grunge serves to perfection, carrying the message of the book in a way that words simply can't.
I encourage you to view the book at full-screen. Just click the little square box next to the Blurb logo. You may have to squint a bit to read the text, but it's worth doing!
Ideas:
- All the elements of a book--photos, fonts, background, text, colors, everything--combine to make the whole. Understanding the theme of your book helps you choose design elements accordingly. The better you stick to your theme, the more cohesive your book will be in the end.
- Snapshots! What a mixed blessing they are! The overwhelming majority are terrible, but sometimes they're all we've got to work with. Treatment is everything. In Remember Me, Graham uses what are essentially a bunch of bad snapshots as a metaphor for memory, advancing the theme of the book and thus turning bad photos into great ones.
3 comments:
I keep saying, I've got to do one. It is so creative, and color pops. Now, if I need ideas, I'll com to your blog to check out the new books. Thank you for highlighting this.
I was just looking at Cheryl Palmer's two recent posts about Blog2Book, and I was considering trying it out. However, after seeing this Blurb example, I'm definitely sticking with Blurb. It may be a bit harder to edit, but I love the creativity. This example gives me lots of new ideas! Thanks for posting today, I almost went ahead with the other publisher!
Heather and Barbara, thanks for your comments. I'm glad to know there's some interest in this topic, since it has my complete attention these days!
BTW, at the moment I'm inspired to do a post like this every Friday, and in prepping the next post, I decided to add a few lines to remind myself what stood out for me in the exemplar, so I've added a few lines to this post since you read it.
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