When we started COUTURE BOOK, we did it because we were tired of the boring, stale board style albums that were out there.  We wanted present our images in books that were exactly like the style of modern fine-art coffee table books that we had by our favorite artists and photographers.  The process to build these books required a different style of printing and binding that wasn't currently available outside of really large printing runs.  Our goal was to make this style of book available as a one-off, custom made book that you could offer to all of your customers.  





The key to these books, however, is not just the physical process of printing and binding, but more importantly it's in the design process.   Grab any one of your coffee-table books, even better grab your favorite one by your favorite photographer (lately my favorite has been Annie Liebovitz - "A Photographer's Life 1990-2005").  When you sit down and look at them, take a hard look at the design and layouts.   They are usually very simple, and really focus on the images.  For instance in the Annie Liebovitz book there is never more than two images per page.  Even better, most pages are single images and panoramic images that span two pages.  This style of design allows your viewer to focus on each image individually.  The design is only there to help you linger and appreciate each image.  This is very different from the designs I commonly see in board albums, albums where you have a very limited amount of pages, where you have to have many images compete for space on each page.





While this is great in theory and it may sound simple, for me personally it's hard to create this style of design and give my images the most impact.   I like to focus on my photography and my customers, so I let my expert handle the design process. 

To help others with this, COUTURE BOOK offers custom design services by our graphic designer for $2.25 an image.  With the custom design process we will create a completely custom layout for your book based on your images and style.   To give you a better idea of some different designs that we've done, here's a link to a slide show of several different styles: CUSTOM DESIGNS





Although each book is unique, we try to start with a general idea of the styles you like, and then we build your unique layout from there.  Not only does it save you time and energy, but your clients can see your images in the best way possible.

Let us know if you are interested in a custom book design or have any questions on custom designs, and we'll be happy to help you create some AMAZING books of your photography!

-Dave

After getting started with the book design process on Aperture 3.0, probably the biggest question I hear is "How do I create a preview to share with my customers before ordering?". 

Unfortunately the bad news is Aperture doesn't have a direct way to generate a preview link to send to your customers, but the good news is we DO have one! 

With our free online preview, we generate a slide-show of your book design, and a link to that design you can forward on to your clients.  That way you can share a preview of your preliminary or finished book layout before ordering the hard copy.  This lets you communicate with your customers, as well as keep a record of exactly which design was approved (you can generate different preview links for each iteration of your design).

Here's how to combine your Aperture design with our free online preview:

• First, pull up your book project in Aperture, and then hit the "Print" button on the upper right

        

• When the print dialog box comes up, there should be a button on the lower left that says “PDF”
• Click on that link and set this option to “Save PDF as Jpg in folder”.  This should automatically start the export process

       

• Once Aperture finishes exporting the images, you’ll see a “gear” icon spinning on your upper status bar.   That tells you that your machine is working on converting the Jpgs

       

• After it finishes, you’ll get a cryptic new window that pops up that says "copy finder items”.  What this actually means is "where do you want your new Jpgs saved".  Just pick the location you’d like to save your layouts at, and this will save your exported jpgs

      
 

After that, it's easy!   Just upload those newly minted Jpgs to your COUTURE BOOK account, and you can order your FREE digital preview. 

Hopefully that doesn't sound too complex, and I promise that once you get the hang of it, it’s really easy!  

Let me know if you run into any snags, or if you have any questions.

-Dave

OMG, when I saw this book go out, I knew it was going to be something special!  

This book was created and shot by Pepper Nix, an amazing photographer out of Utah (www.PepperNix.com).  I've known her for years, and she has been putting together some beautiful books for a long time, but this one really took the cake.   I just love the way Pepper used the printed end-sheets with a leather cover.  It gives a very contemporary feel to a fine-art style of book.  Of course adding in the slipcase also just gave the book a beautiful polished, finished feel.

Make sure you head over to Pepper's blog to see more images of the book, and view more of Pepper's work: Pepper's Blog

Thanks for sharing Pep!!

If you haven't seen it yet, you gotta check out our new Aperture 3.0 plug-in: http://www.CoutureBook.com/Aperture

We love Apple's new Aperture for the book design option.  It's just so easy to use, and once you create your first book each book afterward just gets easier and easier.  Aperture can save custom templates as you create them, making that next book that much faster to design.  Even if you use another program for your image editing, the design piece of Aperture makes it worth your while to check it out.  Here's the link to download the trial version: Aperture

Once you have installed Aperture and our plug-in, here's how to get started with a book design for COUTURE BOOK, and how export it to us when done:

First, select the image you want to use (highlight the images at the bottom or hold "Command A" to select all of them).  Then click on the "New" link at the top, and select book.



Second, this should open a new window with all of the book options available. 



Third, in the "Book Type" drop down window, you can choose COUTURE BOOK.  



Fourth, once you have book picked, you can then pick the size of book you want to design, and name your project.



After that, you'll go through and design your book layouts.  Keep in mind that the provided templates can all be adjusted and you can even make and save your own templates for future COUTURE BOOK project.



Lastly, when your book design is completed, just hit the "Send Book" link in the upper right to send the book to COUTURE BOOK.   This will then connect you to COUTURE BOOK, and will walk you through the ordering process.   You'll be able to pick out your book style and all of the options associated with that style. 



If you do choose a book with a designed cover layout or cover image, we'll follow up after you place your order with instructions on how to upload the cover image(s) separately.

Hope you like the new plug-in, and please let us know if you have any questions comments on it.

Happy Designing!!

-Dave

Wow, what an amazing show!  

So many good speakers, and it was so great meeting everyone out there, seeing old friends, and catching up...  And of course New Orleans itself is FANTASTIC!  

We even have a nice video shot by our friend Jaci Clark: www.jaciclark.com showing our books.

 

We also launched our first show special, which was a great success.  Make sure you keep your eyes out for us at future shows, and don't forget to ask us about the new show specials.

Hope to see everyone again soon, and looking forward to New Orleans again next year!

Look out New Orleans!!

Next week we'll be in New Orleans for the Pictage Partner Conference, from November 3rd through the 5th - http://pro.pictage.com/community/ppc/neworleans/

Even if you aren't a Pictage Member, this would be a great show to attend, and they only have a couple of last spots left.



We're bringing a bunch of new books, and we'll have a great show special available to everyone we meet there, so make sure you swing by and say hello!

Hope to see you next week!!