Years ago when I was into wedding work a lot on the east coast I ordered albums almost exclusively from Michel Company. At that time they we terrific, price, customer service and delivery. Wish I had the business now to use them again.
. Cornerstone Albums
These guys have some really great prices and the turn around is FAST. They do two different types. Fine Art & Coffe Table Albums. I do the Coffe Table albums a lot. The price includes the prints on the coffe table albums.
Brody do you use Photoshop to create your Cornerstone Ablums or did you buy the $180 software to create them, or even another program? I am interested in this but just trying to see if the $180 is worth spending on their software or should I spend more on another or just save my money and use PS.
Mike,
I use the panoconsole from the cornerstone albums. Its nothing different then a premade actions you use in photoshop. Its worth the money I think because I can design a full page spread in about 5 minutes. Doing this in photoshop with no actions it used to take me about 15 minutes. The other advantage of the software is that you don't have to use it on the Cornerstone Albums. You can design anything you want and use what ever album you want. When you split the pages it makes them be 10x15 or anything in that ratio, such as 8x12, 6x9 or 4x6, so making smaller duplicate albums is very easy.
The only thing I would say is that you shouldn't make the outside cover black. It is a finger print magnet. Although I love the look of it, I just have to clean it off after each person has came it and looked through it.
I used to think that the album designs would be limited to the aging 10x10 Art Leather albums or the way over priced montage albums, but I think I have found a new nitch with this company and I plan on offering a album like this in all of my packages next year.
Meg,
I have seent the brushed cover. I went to a class in Denver that the owner of the album company taught. His name is Gary Fong. The brushed metal was just that, brushed metal. I don't think you can get them to cut out anything in it. I do know that they are always making improvements to the albums so this might be a feature they will offer, or maybe the even offer it now. I haven't looked at it in a while. It was a very cool over all look though.
Thanks Brody, I have ordered Cornerstone's sample 5x5 album to check out their quality. I think I will end up offerering this company as well as GraphiStudio and the older look Art Leather Ablums next year myself. By the time the year rolls around I should have sample books from all albums. On the surface this company looks really, really good!
Turns out that the Cornerstone fullfillment center for the printing, binding, and album making are done by Western Photographic Supplies in Orange Co. (just 15 min away from me!) I got to talking with Mike one of the main guys there and he allowed me to personally deliver my prints for the album I ordered. I got to see their place and it is amazing! They actually distribute all kinds of custom albums as well as other brand names like Art Leather, Rennaissance, Topflight, etc. What caught my eye was the Cornerstone brushed metal cover - WOW! It literally is a thick cover made of brushed metal. It feels nice, looks great, and has the option of imprinting something on it. And they have a special deal with Gary Fong that they will finish any Cornerstone orders in two weeks (they have normally 3-6 weeks turnaround). The only drawback to Cornerstone is that their selection of colors is limited.
I second that, it has really helped out trying to figure out which companies and how many I want to offer next year for my business and at the Bridal shows.
