Here’s an idea, we really like.
Create a wonderwall.
Take a whole bunch of your pictures, like a hundred or so, sort them out a bit (or better yet, let someone else do it for you) and put them all into a really big montage to create a (wonder)wall of images.
Back in the day, a friend of mine had a corkboard up in their kitchen. Nothing fancy, just one of those manky old corkboard things that they used to pin memos on in staff rooms and offices. They pinned photos on theirs. There was no grand design, no planning and no obvious thought about how the photos were arranged or positioned. Over the years, as more and more photos were pinned on it, it grew into something amazing. It became a sort of living snapshot of a whole families’ life. Their travels, their loves, their losses and a permanent reminder of some magically, awful 80’s haircuts and fashion choices.
Even after all these years, the idea of that old corkboard has stayed with me. It’s as if, it gave the photos what they deserved… a chance to honour the memories that they captured.
Still, enough nostalgia. It ain’t, as you know, what it used to be.
Nowadays, you don’t need a corkboard, a lifetime’s supply of drawing pins and to remember to always wear sturdy shoes in the kitchen, you can do it all at your friendly, neighbourhood photo shop with the click of a mouse… or if you’d prefer, you can get them to do the mouse clicking for you.
Our photo kiosks make the process of creating collages, child’s play. Even a grown up can do it. You decide what size collage you want, choose a layout you like, load your up photos up and put them where you want them. You can move things around to your heart’s content. You get to preview the whole collage before it’s printed. You can print it as many, or as few times, as you like.
If that all seems a bit too fixed, for your liking, you could always go down the multi-aperture frame route, as this allows you to change individual photos in the collage, whenever you like.
If you wanted a really big, custom one and/or you want us to do some clever designer-y, cropping, resizing, positioning and composition stuff with your images, just ask.
Whichever approach you like the most, creating themed collages is a laugh. It is, actually, fun (and not fun in the way that they pretend buying a new fridge is fun). Plus, because they have a bit of you in them, they make brilliant gifts.
You could create a collage of pictures on a classic theme; Birthdays, Holidays, Weddings and Babies… but why restrict yourself to just these? You only need 3 or so images and a bit of imagination. You can do anything you like. It can be serious, stupid, funny, sad, touching or as mad as a box of frogs. Here, are some suggestions for themes:
- Mum’s Top Ten Culinary Catastrophes
- I love my new Car/Bee Hive/Theramin/Sense of Self Worth
- Grumpy Cat, Happy Dog
- The Seventh Pentacostal Church of All Saints day trip to Scarborough,
- 16th Annual Dance like your Dad, Awards.
- Magically awful 80’s hairtcuts and fashion choices
And, you see, our big montage, our wall of images, it documents moments past: a place you can never get to, but one you can glimpse at...