Scrapbook Designers Workbook • 3/18/08
Wow, in case you haven’t noticed there are a TON of design books for Scrapbook making out there. They range from everything from beginner focused books to “professional” designer guides. The Scrapbook Designers Workbook: Unlocking the Secrets to Great Page Design reference by Kari Hansen tends to fall into the latter category and that’s one reason why I’m mentioning it here.
That’s because there’s a proliferation of beginner books that don’t focus on design at all out there. So it’s nice to see something that’s meant to teach at least basic principles of design. The book goes into color theory and palette choice concepts and gives pointers on what a professionally designed scrapbook might look like.
I think there were quite a few people who were a bit miffed that the author started out the book mostly with crititques of what a good page should look like. I feel that they didn’t like her tone as much (i.e. “this is NOT what a good scrapbooking page looks like) but I personally think this is OK. After all, some stringent sort of guidance might be useful for someone who wants to elevate their scrapbooking and design techniques to the next level.
Sure, there should be room for personal interpretation. But if you go to art school, there are going to be certain classes where instructors are definitely going to say “This is the way to do it.” I feel it’s important to go through that once, and then make up your mind yourself - no one says you have to agree with the author’s definition of a “good page”.
The book also includes a CD-Rom of 75 printable page layouts.
