The New Year is a great time to stop, take a look around, absorb what you've achieved, and focus on what the year ahead offers. I've just done the absorb bit. Gone back and had a look at what we've posted over the past year. I found some really great stuff I'd forgotten about! No doubt you've forgotten or missed some of these posts too so over the next few days we'll bring you our favourite posts of 2008.  There's not much of a criteria - just posts that really stood out to us. I hope they do to you too. We'll start by engaging your senses. Today we've picked a couple of really interesting interviews, To View More >>

I was listening to a lovely song by Amy Seeley and was imagining images in my head. The song is haunting and has a feeling of being connected to a story. When I think about stories I usually think in a visual way. Creating a relationship between sound and imagery that isn't literal is a powerful thing. That is the difference between an album of images from a wedding, and the emotional and visual journey that is an album as a story, a collection of memories, a journey, a love, and a destination. One is a set of pictures, and the other is a visual and emotional soundscape - a song in my head. What To View More >>

Meet Chris MacKenzie. He's new to the industry. He's working hard to build his business. He's doing it in the tough UK market. And, he's just set up a promotion with an exclusive venue in his area. A real 'corker' to use his words. "The first day I was there, I met the Executive Vice President at Pebble Beach Golf Resort. The next day I met a billionaire. On my third visit, I met an Australian couple who'd just returned from a luxury six week tour of Europe. They were so taken by my sample albums that the chap started asking about using Queensberry to display his holiday snaps." Now some might To View More >>

I recently held a small workshop in the UK at the studio of Zoe Richards just out of Liverpool. It was intimate (there were only nine of us). We discussed album design and particularly spoke about the Musée. One of the ideas of that album is to create a feeling of intimacy. The resounding lesson from our discussion was about that and simplicity. Too often people cram images into albums to the point where there is no room to rest your eyes. The Musée design uses space to reinforce the luxury and quality feel of the product. There is something exciting about an intimate moment in a cupboard but To View More >>

In a few hours we'll have made it to our holiday close-down. Each year we have a barbeque and a few drinks after work on the last day, and, because we operate from three sites (Bindery, Lab, IT team, not to mention a few outliers), it isn't possible to get everyone together for it. Which is a pity, because it's quite an emotional event - and a bit greasy too, given I'm one of those that helps with the cooking! Only a grinch could fail to notice what a friendly, hard-working, supportive bunch the people who work here are and what fun they are to be with. It's a real shame we can't all meet up. But To View More >>

I watched a video on DWF by Jesh de Rox ("Client Connections"). Everybody loves Jesh, and “Jesh loves everybody" ... Actually there are probably a few photographers who don’t "love Jesh" because they don’t know him ... Possibly fairer to say, ‘To know him is to be loved by him" ... and we all know that love works best as a two way street. He talked about getting couples to show their love to you, the photographer. You cannot do it without trust. And you cannot do it without first giving them some love of your own. How profoundly simple but true! Johannes To View More >>

I read Ian's post on the Kodak Carousel and immediately wanted to put my hand up .... (a sling back to the days of discipline at a Catholic school). I'm probably stating the obvious but I felt the message was SO important that it deserved emphasising.  Yes, I understand the business side of the message but there was this other thing that became important too. The post has a video clip from Mad Men, a sublime tv program about an advertising agency in the States in the 60's. It's about the launch of the Carousel .... Forgetting the wonderfully clever pitch, the ability to turn an electromechanical To View More >>

I posted the other day about this being a great time to consider whether any of your business policies and touch points aggravate your customers, and if so fix them. I included a PS saying we know we’re not perfect, and "if you reckon this is the pot calling the kettle black, please leave a comment or email us". I was glad I did because Mark went to some trouble to leave a lengthy comment detailing his frustration with us. My point here is not so much to talk about his particular issues (we've been in touch, of course, and we  pretty much have to take what he says on the chin, and fix the To View More >>

In 25 days I get married. I’ve known my beautiful fiancée, Kayla, for over 10 years, dated her for over five and we've been engaged for one. We’ve been through some tough times together, shared plenty of good ones and believe that the heart of marriage is the relationship we create. I don’t consider myself uber romantic, funny, sensitive, or wealthy. But Kayla thinks otherwise. And that’s part of why I love her. I’m not a wedding planner or a photographer, just a normal guy in love, getting married … who happens to work at Queensberry. As you'd expect the photographers we work with To View More >>

We asked one of our print consultants about their commitment to sustainability a few days ago, and they were rather puzzled by the question. "But of course," they said. "It goes without saying doesn't it?  Sustainable plantation paper ... ECF processing ... vegetable-based inks. We don't beat the drum about it, that's just the way it is these days." We feel the same way, but we're regularly asked the same question, so here's Queensberry's philosophy on the environment and sustainability... Humanity's biggest impact on the environment is generally from our daily practices. That coffee is gone in To View More >>