The one thing you might notice by visiting this years’ trade shows are not only the increased number of digital albums (as apposed to the traditional matted ones) and the amount of vendors supplying them.

These albums aren’t in anyway new but what we have seen in the last few month is more and more companies offering 5:2 books.

The 5:2 ratio is what’s it’s all about this year and worth designing a sample to have handy.

I first saw this style last year in an album designed by Jerry Ghionis and to be honest it’s a really interesting space to design in.

There are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind:

• You’ll have to shoot very much for the album if you want to make the most out of the panoramic format. This means shooting very loose and horizontally.
• The top page works well when left blank although it’s hard to appreciate in a digital sample.
• It’s unlikely that your clients will have seen this format of album before so it might take a little convincing!

My advise if you’re thinking about trying these types of albums out is design a few pages using a recent wedding and see how your images fit into the space.

I’d love to know if you’ve already been using this album format so please share some links in the comments.

If you’re thinking about offering these albums then one supplier I can happily recommend here in Europe is Album Epoca.