Why D.I.Y.? Resources Buy the Book
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D.I.Y. Design It Yourself
Chapter Topics

Basic design
Blogs
Books (blank)
Books (printed)
Brands
Business cards
CD and DVD packaging
Embroidery
Envelopes
Flyers
Gifts
Housewares
Invitations
Kids
Logos
Newsletters
Note cards
Photo albums
Postcards
Presentations
Press kits
Stationery
Stickers
T-shirts
Tote bags
Web sites
Wall Graphics
Zines
Interviews

 

Behind every photo album is an ego—yours. But inside that ego lives an historian, an artist, and a philosopher. The historian is recording, editing, and preserving the past. The artist is arranging and embellishing pictures on the page. And the philosopher is thinking about the ideas that illuminate all this stuff. Whether it’s love or fortune, self or sociability, the passage of time or its glorious denial, somewhere in every album an idea is struggling to be put into words and pictures.

Scrapbooking has gone public. A vast array of specialized tools and fancy materials, as well as books, zines, and Web sites, have emerged to build (and profit from) this popular hobby. Home-based workshops, run by entrepreneurial housewives on the Tupperware model, provide training and idea exchange—along with the inevitable consumer opportunity. Although most albums document family events, some practitioners are using scrap–books to promote their small businesses (such as dental offices and home daycare centers). Other scrapbookers start their own businesses in order to develop quirkier supplies than those promoted by the big companies. The Internet allows one-of-a-kind books to be displayed, furthering the public dissemination of these once-private documents.

Scrapbooking Philosophies:

• The book's the thing: instead of buying an album, recycle an old diary, almanac, atlas, comic book, recipe file, or binder. Its previous life provides background for the story you want to tell.

• Be an archaeologist. Mix materials and memories from different times and places. Juxtapose and counterpoint the layers of your life.

• Ideas rock. Add content, concept, and typography through scraps of text from poetry, old dictionaries, maps, or songs.

 

 

• Have a point of view. Are you thinking like a scientist or a poet? A journalist or a romantic? Find the ideas mixed in your memories, and bring them forward through thoughtful framing of your materials.

• Be real. Your own writing in your own hand is an authentic alternative to the prepackaged sentiments sold at craft stores.

 

 
 
 
 
Why D.I.Y.? Resources Buy the Book Authors Downloads MICA Chapter Topics