Family is the most important thing; Many of us spend countless hours dreaming up ways to preserve the priceless moments spent together. With a family photo album, your most treasured memories can be preserved for a lifetime. Whether you want to show your family’s growth over centuries or turn small moments into a meaningful collection, a family photo album allows you to do so with elegance and precision.
We’ve outlined the most important steps of album creation. Follow along and you’ll have an heirloom-quality family photo album displayed in your home before you know it!
The first thing to decide before beginning to build your family photo album is who you want to include. You might be thinking, “Well, I want to include my family, of course.” Definitely! But your family continues back for generations, in dozens of different directions. The story you want to tell with your family album will dictate who specifically you should plan to include.
You can construct your family photo book to capture the storyline of your family through centuries; You can tell a detailed story of your immediate family; You can capture the blending of two families into one, highlight the impact pets and friends have had on your family, or map your family’s movement from place to place. The opportunities are endless when it comes to crafting your family photo album – and only you can decide which style will most authentically capture the story of your family!
Once you decide what story you want to tell with your custom family album and who you wish to include, it’s time to begin collecting materials. If you’ve decided to include multiple family trees in your album, get in touch with as many relatives as possible. Ask them to check their photo collections for any hidden gems they may have stashed away. Depending on how far back you hope to go with your album, you may even be able to source photos online or in the archives of your ancestor’s home town libraries.
If you’re structuring your album around your immediate family, ask everyone to browse their camera rolls and social media pages for meaningful photos. You’ll be amazed by the incredible photos your family members will turn over – especially if you have children in their teens or early twenties.
As you compile photos for your family photo album, don’t overlook non-photo artifacts. Handwritten letters, deeds to homes or storefronts, and tickets for plane or boat rides are all examples of the unique materials you may stumble upon as you photo source – whether you’re digging through centuries of documents or rummaging through drawers in your home. These materials can add incredible intrigue and authenticity to your album; We say: if you find it, include it! Simply scan your discoveries – this can be done right from your mobile phone – and upload them to your photo galleries as you would a standard image.
With all the time, energy, and emotion that goes into creating a family photo album, only the highest quality crafter should be trusted to bring it to life. Run your hands over the fabrics of a Printique photo album, and you’ll know you’ve got nothing but the best. With the finest authentic, lifetime-lasting materials, each of our album covers invites you to take a walk down memory lane.
Every page of every Printique album features only the highest quality archival paper. This ensures that your photos come to life with the same warmth, texture, and vivacity as the moments themselves. As your pages are turned by eager hands, both young and old, your photos will never age. There will be no silent countdown to the inevitable fade of colors or loosened bindings. A Printique photo album is an investment that your children will show their grandchildren. They are made to last lifetimes. We know just how priceless every moment with family is, and we do those moments justice with the highest quality materials that the world has to offer.
With your photos and miscellaneous documents at the ready, it’s time to decide how you would like to structure your family photo album. Hint: This will closely relate to the direction you selected in step one. You may wish to label various sections by year, or by family name if you’re showcasing two families becoming one. Perhaps you wish to feature dozens of iconic ancestors, accompanied by anecdotes of their most significant milestones. Maybe you want to tell your family’s stories in nothing but comprehensive photo collages, mimicking the way memories flicker by in your mind.
No matter the approach you’re taking with your family album, plan to arrange your album chronologically; If your album will be broken up into sections, each of these sections should be chronological. Abandoning a chronological arrangement of materials can make it hard to remember what certain images depict down the road – and even make it difficult to figure out who is who in certain photos. For example, if a baby photo taken in 1995 is grouped with photos taken in the mid-2000’s, you may struggle to confirm whose baby photo it is – even if you knew at the time of printing.
And just like that, it’s time to create your family photo album! The prep work you’ve completed in the previous steps will help to greatly simplify the actual photo album creation process. Either craft your photo album from scratch, or customize one of the dozens of premium album templates we offer on our site. Note that we highly recommend customizing a premade template, unless you have prior experience in album design.
Upload your images and assets to a Printique gallery. This gallery will show up alongside your photo album template, allowing you to easily drag and drop your images into the album design.
Once your images have found a home on the pages of your album, it’s time to lock in on your album’s physical details. Decide whether you would like to feature an image on the cover of your album, or have it wrapped with leather, fabric, or metal. While a leather cover will give your family photo album a true heirloom feel, a metal cover will add an element of luxury and splendor to your album. Let personal taste guide you to your decision; We offer no “bad options” when it comes to the wrapping details of our premium albums.
After deciding on your album’s cover details, paper finish, paper thickness, and optional page gilding, your family photo album is ready to order! Sit back and relax as we craft your memories with care, to create a family photo album that will be passed through the hands of your relatives for generations to come.