Hey! It’s Charlotte from the customer service team 😊 One of the most common questions I get is “how do I create custom embossings?” so I’ve put together a super simple Canva tutorial to help you out! Why Canva? Canva is an easy-to-use online design tool that makes design accessible to everyone —no need for complex software like Illustrator! With a library full of modern fonts and illustrations, your ability to create beautiful, custom embossing designs for your clients is endless. 1) Gather Inspiration Start by heading to Pinterest to collect inspiration for your To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook Bad taste takes a while to show up, but as soon as it does it’s embarrassing. How to avoid it? Start by keeping it simple. If in doubt, leave it out. The half life of crap In her book The Mesh, Lisa Gansky talks about “the half life of crap” – about cheap manufactured products and how long they last. Or rather don’t last. Her point is that the half life of crap products is way too short. They get boring or they break. They end up at the back of your garage or as land fill. Our poor planet can’t afford To View More >>

In many markets Covid is likely to limit the size of weddings —  and therefore wedding photography — for some months yet. And with all the restrictions and uncertainty many weddings are likely to be postponed until next season. But there's an upside! Any 2020 weddings delayed until 2021 and 2022 could make those years busier than normal! Which will be a great "problem" to have, as long as you can cope with the extra work. What that means…  • This year albums will be very important as a way to maximise revenue and profit from wedding clients — both current To View More >>

There are 10,000,002 ways to create a Queensberry … approximately … but who's counting?! We’re proud of our huge range of materials, colours, cover styles, page types, paper stocks, and embossing and print options. With them you can create something truly unique. But with lots of choice come lots of decisions. It can be like ordering at a fabulous restaurant with a 10-page menu, wishing you could have it all. So we thought we’d use our new sample album to demonstrate how to  simplify your design choices  and create unique "looks" that complement To View More >>

A long post but full of insights! Andy Fountain explains how he and Lewis developed their unique style of wedding photography, how almost every coverage includes an album, and the pay-off for both their clients and the studio. There are two photographers at Fountain Photography. How do you and Lewis work together to capture the big day? Lewis is now my business partner, rather than simply an employee and second shooter. Mid-photography degree, we brought Lewis in to the business with the idea of eventually shooting two weddings a day, and making twice the profit. But while To View More >>

Following on from last week's post, here are a few more album design tips. For all you photographers designing your own.  Let them breathe… We touched on cropping last time, but it's worth repeating! Sure photo-bombing is fun, but generally we like the core elements of an image to have a nice amount of breathing space to the edge of the page, or image "frame". In fact think of it exactly like framing a picture: it gives the subject a sense of intent and importance. Jamming things up against the image edge often looks awkward. But "breathing To View More >>

We caught up with two of the design team,  Simon and Rachel, to talk all things album design. Here are their top four tips for creating beautiful, clean layouts. Less is more Rachel: Unclutter your design. It’s simple. Let the key images and high quality materials of an album speak for themselves. If you notice the design, it’s taking precedence over the images – good design is effortless. Simon: If the design is loaded with images the hero shots can be lost among a forest of images. By keeping the image selection minimal, you’ll free up space and make the rest To View More >>

Last week we were enjoying drinks and nibbles with some photographers in the Design Space, and they asked, why all the pictures on the walls? The short answer: We’re visual people and we need visual prompts. The long answer: It’s part of our design process. We fill walls with things that inspire us, projects we’re working on and ideas for the future. They remind us what we’re up to and where we’re going. Workspace has been our main focus as designers this year. We’re a small team, and it seemed a daunting task. “Where do we start?” we thought — To View More >>

Here's a handy tip if you're using our free design service. Please hit the SEND button, or we won't get your feedback. (SAVE adds them to the database but doesn't pass them to us.) You'll find the button at the bottom right of the screen, as in the graphic. We normally have design edits done within 24 hours, so if you don't hear from us promptly, take a look in Workspace to double check that you sent the comments. By the way the same applies to feedback from your clients. If you haven't heard from them, ask them to check that they've hit the Send Feedback button, To View More >>

When our friends from NZTE (New Zealand Trade and Enterprise) wanted a customised book designed for Judith Thompson, the retiring Director of Better by Design, we were more than happy to jump aboard. The brief was for Queensberry to design, print and bind a book filled with photos and personal messages supplied by staff, clients and friends from her time with NZTE. Click on the images to take a closer look. Judith’s overall responsibility included a range of design education initiatives including the regional CEO talk series, study tours to Silicon Valley and Better By Design's annual CEO Summit. To View More >>