About Album Design
We want to make your life easier. Let our experienced designers take some of the work off of your plate and create beautifully designed books for your clients. Just send us your finished images and we’ll do the rest.
Madera was started by a photographer who knows how debilitating a to-do list full of “albums to design” can be. We also know that no self-respecting photographer wants to throw their images into a template design software that spits out cookie cutter designs.
We don’t use a template design software. We have real people, using your photographs, to create beautiful custom layouts every time. Our designers have been in the photography industry for years and have designed more albums than they could count.
Album Design Pricing
Album design is just $79, $99 or $119! We’ll design up to 20, 30, or 40 spreads, upload to Album Exposure for proofing, and do 2 rounds of revisions!
Additional rounds of revisions are $25.
This tiered pricing structure allows you to have additional pages designed at no additional cost to you, to show your client the best possible book design. If they don’t want the additional pages, it’s no loss to you!
Album Design F.A.Q.
ARE YOU ABLE TO DESIGN SQUARE ALBUMS?
Of course! Any size Madera makes, we’ll design. Vertical, square, horizontal… you get the point. During the order process you will choose the height and width of your design.
CAN YOU DESIGN VERTICAL DESIGNS?
Ummmm… Look up.
CAN YOU ADD STROKES OR KEYLINES TO MY IMAGES?
The designers can add keylines of any color to your images. The most common are black or white (depending on the page background color) and we personally like small, understated keylines, but it’s always up to you.
WHAT STYLES OF DESIGN DO YOU OFFER?
We design in a clean, simple style. No colored backgrounds, overlapping or tilted pictures, lots of full spread and full page photos. If you’re looking for something that’s a little more complex, we’re happy to refer you to album design companies that offer those styles.
WILL I HAVE TO DO ANYTHING TO THE DESIGNED PAGES BEFORE SUBMITTING?
Nope. The files you receive will be ready to go to print.
HOW DO I KNOW HOW MANY SPREADS TO ORDER?
On average you can assume about 4 images per spread. Not that each spread will have 4 images, it’s just an average. So if your client receives a 20 page/10 spread album, you will need to provide us with 35-40 images.
Now in our photography businesses we always design our albums 20-30% larger then the album that comes in the package. This gives us an opportunity to sell a larger album to our clients. Yeah, it’s a gamble on your part when outsourcing, but there’s always the chance they will love the design as is and gladly pay for the upgrade. Which could completely cover the cost of outsourcing. Now that’s a win for everyone.
HOW CAN MY CLIENTS PROOF THE DESIGN?
One of the benefits of using Madera as your album designer is our connection with Album Exposure. Album Exposure is a simple and elegant online proofing system. When you choose to have Madera design your albums, you then have the opportunity to send online proofs you your clients. They communicate changes they would like made through Album Exposure. We can see the changes requested, make those changes, and alert the client to those changes without you having to do anything. 2 rounds of revisions are included in the price of the design.
HOW MANY CHANGES CAN I MAKE AFTER I SEE THE PROOF?
Our assumption is you, the photographer, would make some minor adjustments before sending the Album Exposure gallery to your client for proofing. The second round is built in just in case the client has changes they would like made after seeing the proof. It is our recommendation that you prep your clients to take their time reviewing the design before asking for changes to reduce the chances of multiple revisions.
CAN YOU MAKE SOME OF MY IMAGES BLACK AND WHITE?
Well of course we have the ability, but no, we do not make any color adjustments to your images. If you would like to have a spread of all B&W images, then convert the images you would like on the spread to B&W before uploading and leave a note explaining that you would like those images placed together. Even if you forget the note our designers are pretty perceptive and will probably figure it out on their own.
HOW DO I GET MY IMAGES TO YOU?
Do you have an FTP client? If not or you have no idea what I just said then look at the next question. If you’re all up to speed on ftp and how it works then there’s your answer. Use your login info and upload them just as you would album spreads.
If that sounds too complicated just send us a Dropbox or a similar (Google drive, YouSendIt…etc) link!
WHAT IS AN FTP CLIENT AND HOW DO I GET ONE?
FTP (file transfer protocol) is a way to transfer files over the internet. Our favorite (free) FTP client is Filezilla. Simply download Filezilla and enter the information you received in your order confirmation email. You will see a folder with your name on it. Drag and drop the folder with the images for your design onto your folder. The transfer could take some time. The amount of time is based solely on your internet speed.
HOW DO I GET THE FILES BACK AFTER THE DESIGN IS FINISHED?
The designer will upload the files back to the ftp server and send you a link to download them.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR THE DESIGN TO BE READY?
We work hard to get you the design as quickly as possible. That’s the whole point in outsourcing right? It should never take longer than 7 business days for the initial design.