One Size Does Not Fit All....

If you read scrapbooking industry magazines even a little bit, you will have likely noticed that over the last couple of years, the trend has been towards publishing page layouts that showcase LARGE photos. These layouts often contain journaling that is heartfelt and emotional (if they contain journaling at all), thus placing the focus strictly on the photo and how it is 'creatively' showcased. Personally, I think this trend has a lot to do with the digital revolution more than anything else. Digital photographers have an increased ability to easily edit otherwise 'imperfect' shots, and can easily order and/or print enlargements at relatively little expense. It may also be attributed to the desire of scrapbookers to showcase stellar photography in an album. Photography is after all an art - and great art deserves to be on display. But what if you don't buy-in to this trend? What if you are an event scrapper that likes to scrap many photos on a page? Will you continue to purchase magazines or Idea Books that seem explicitly focused on publishing single photo layouts? Not likely....so as a result, many magazines are responding and posting publishing 'calls' for multi-photo layouts. So this is good news...but apparently not for everyone. Nancy Nally at her blog Inside Scrapbooking has an interesting view on this new 'trend' and in her words; "This may be a wise business decision for the publications and good for the industry as a whole, but it requires that designers who wish to continue to be published follow this trend that was artificially created outside their ranks, instead of evolving naturally within the design community. " Quite honestly, I take exception to this statement. I disagree that this trend has been 'artificially created'. Magazines are posting these calls in 'response' to their readership - a large portion of who are event scrappers that like to scrap multiple photos on a single page. So in what way is this artificial? On the flip side, one could argue that many 'event' scrappers have likely felt that the design community has been imposing the trend of single-photo layouts upon them -- to them, the trend towards single-photo pages seems artificial. Who is right? and Who is wrong? (these are rhetorical questions). Yes, I agree with Nancy that the design community will need to adjust the way that they scrapbook IF they wish to respond to calls that focus on multi-photo layouts - or they can simply decide not to respond to them. Similarly, event (or multi-photo) scrappers don't need to respond to calls for single photo layouts. With respect to open calls, well it's anyone's game and only time will tell what the publishing preference or design trend will be. Essentially, I believe that there is a place in this market for everyone. I personally scrapbook with standard size prints, cropped prints AND enlargements - what I use depends not only on the focus of my page but the prints I am working with. I have also been known to have my prints made smaller - wallet sized as Nancy suggested - if there is no room to crop and that is what will work best with my intended design. And also... journaling on events pages does not need to be limited to the who, what, when and where. You can still journal about the moment and your feelings about it - and be an event scrapper at the same time. Your album need not be a family 'newspaper', and can still be a family journal without the inclusion of single-photo layouts. (See my previous blog post on scrapbook journaling here). The bottom line is that scrapbooking is more than a hobby; it is an art - and an outlet for creative personal expression. If you choose to express yourself by scrapbooking only 'Moments' with single photo layouts - or to scrapbook events with multi-photo layouts, that is entirely up to you - the scrapbooker. There is no right or wrong answer - and publishers are correct to recognize that there is not, nor should there be a one-size fits all approach to inspiring their readers.