Tuesday, June 3

A Blurb About You.

Couples, by John Hack via Blurb.

I have a great Unexpected Guests feature coming up tomorrow on creative director Kelly Niland. While I was over at her lovely home over the weekend, she shared with me this great new local start-up site called Blurb. Blurb is a wonderful self-publishing tool. A place to de-archive all of your precious digital pics - you know the ones floating around on your desktop, flickr account, or sitting around getting lost in some drawer on a disk - into one perfectly bound book of your own very personal design.

Square Deal, by Tobalo via Blurb.


Ghosts of the Great Highway, by Robert Mars via Blurb.

With Blurb, you can create books for your own personal archival system, and to share with friends and family, or even go so far as to market and sell your books to the public on the Blurb site, and you even get to name the price. Their downloadable, free software works with both Macs and PC's, so they are an equal opportunity publisher when it comes to making your very own beautifully bound coffee table books.

Picturing the 50's, by Neil Clemons via Blurb.

You can add photos, text, and artwork to hundreds of the beautifully designed layouts Blurb has to choose from. And should you need some inspiration, there are tons of books online at Blurb for browsing, even buying should you find yourself that inspired! I'm thinking of trying it out and doing a book of my Sunday in the City pix. What will your Blurb book be?

Surf Style, by Nick Onken via Blurb.

19 comments:

Prêt à Voyager said...

These pictures of books made by creatives totally make me want to try it out. Perhaps I'll test it out with my pictures from my recent trip to Cambodia + Thailand :)

Anne

Rona Chang said...

Your Sunday in the City is a perfect book project. I've always pictured it that way. You should totally make it!!!

eM said...

I'd make one of San Francisco - past and present - because I LOVE my home town and I would definitely do one of dogs - mine and others - just because I love dogs too
signed - Homesick in Seattle

Uncle Beefy said...

I was just thinking the other day when browsing your Sunday pics that it should be a book!!! So clearly, Victoria...ya' gotta do it!

Can't wait to peruse the site! Such a great idea and I know my partner and my hard drive would appreciate the lightening of the load in the organization department! ;)

Keep us posted on the book! Oh please, oh please, oh please!

design nomad said...

What a great site!! I've made books through iLife before, but the range of sizes & options with Blurb make it even more appealing. A book on personal collections would great too, the possibilities are endless. Thanks so much for the link.

i suwannee said...

i'm working on dogs riding in cars!

Anonymous said...

What a fantastic service! Thanks for the tip. My book will be all about San Francisco and the foods I've eaten within it's borders. Can't wait to see yours.

Anonymous said...

What a great idea! And you should definitely do a book of your wonderful Sunday in the City pix -- I'd love to see that!

Lori

Nathalie said...

Victoria ! Can't wait for your sunday in the city book :)

Do it ! its just a perfect idea..
ps thanks for sharing this great link !

Anonymous said...

good timing! i had just made a folder of photos that i wanted to make into a book, but had not made a decision on a vendor. i think the size and cover options are unique and will be perfect for my projects! thanks Victoria.

Joanna Goddard said...

very cool! it's like a make-your-own coffee table book. thank you so much!

atomique47 said...

I used them about a year ago for my photos from my trip to Italy. I was really pleased with the options, pricing and quality. I can't wait to make another one! Be warned though.. it's a time sucker. The perfectionist in me worked on that thing for hours on end trying different layouts.

Anonymous said...

Please do a sundays in the city book!

Cheryl Cochran said...

Blurb is great! For my BFA thesis this year I wrote and illustrated a children's book (http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/213403) and used Blurb to publish the final product. It came out wonderful.

Stephanie said...

I used Blurb once last year and loved it so much that I'm creating another book right now for my daughter. The bookstore is also an excellent way to discover new artists too.

traphic signs said...

yay yay yay yay.... pleeease do a sunday in the city book!! it would be fab.

and let us all know so you can sell it to us!

Ana said...

oh oh oh! thanks for this tip. i blogged about John Hack a while back, and it's awesome to see that he has a blurb book available! thanks again!

have a great weekend!

Lauren said...

For those of you looking to make your own books, I've used both Blurb and Lulu (lulu.com) and have had better luck quality wise from Lulu. They also don't require their logo, are less expensive, and have more size options, as well as let you completely customize the book and upload as a pdf. Just thought I'd throw that out as another option
(and I'm no way affilitated with any publishing company out there. Just a graphic designer with an obsession for books)

Anonymous said...

This is so exciting ~ I'm in the process of publishing my first children's book through blurb. In fact I've been laying out the actual book this very week using their software ~ which I have to say, I'm loving the simplicity and ease of use ~ even though I use InDesign frequently ~ it's such a nice treat to have already created, classic, sophisticated layouts to choose from, that you can just piece together.