News and Events
Scrap the old name for photo projects
By Eric Benderoff
Published June 26, 2006
For men, hearing the word "scrapbook" is akin to dangling garlic in front of a vampire.
If you tell men, and many women, that what they are doing with their digital photos could be called "scrapbooking," you can actually see them recoil in horror.
Trust me: I've been doing experiments. And what do men think about the word?
"I think of people going to a store to buy an ink stamp with little feet, so they can stamp little feet around the pages," said my brother-in-law, David. "And I think about doilies."
Funny thing is, David creates extremely entertaining family projects, combining photos--new and old--video clips, music and clever transitions. "I pay extra for those," he said.
"It's got to tell a story," David says of his computer-generated hobby. "I did a DVD for my dad's 75th birthday. [He didn't finish it until Leo turned 76.] I included pictures of his old house, pictures of his parents, showed how important it is for him to be a [grandfather], and mixed in music and some videos. If you do it right, it's a gift you couldn't buy for any amount of money."
David is great at these projects and he loves doing them. But don't go calling them scrapbooks. "That's more craft-y. What I do is more technical."
As is my right as his brother-in-law, I disagree.
It may not be a montage on special paper that has fancy borders or ink stamps of little feet, but it is a celebration of memories.
And men really like that they can do this on their computers, even if they don't know what to call it. Heck, David has one computer just for making DVDs.
People spend a lot of money on scrapbooking, the craft of creating an elaborate album of photos, mementos and other keepsakes.
For whatever reason, in its traditional form, the hobby has been almost exclusively performed by women, though it's clear the advance of technology is changing this.
According to data from publisher Primedia Inc., one-quarter of all U.S. households have at least one family member who scrapbooks, creating an annual market of $2.5 billion.
The survey was completed in 2004 and doesn't include the impact of technology, except to acknowledge that many photos are shot with a digital camera or printed at home.
The popularity of digital photography has created a boon in opportunities on how to display photos. That includes putting them onto a DVD, mugs, mouse pads, and, of course, photo books, a growing market.
Sales of photo books--or albums created with digital photos--reached $200 million in 2005, according to the Photo Marketing Association. That figure could double by 2007.
The association doesn't break down its figures to see which sex is buying (and creating) the bulk of those photo books, but the numbers do not skew toward women, said market research director Dimitrios Delis.
"It's not as much gender influenced as traditional scrapbooking," he said.
Would Delis call a photo book a scrapbook? Like my brother-in-law, he thinks of crafts when he hears the term "scrapbook," even though he sees the goals as being similar.
"You want to create an elegant book of a family event or vacation," he said.
Delis, too, likes to tell stories with photo books.
"I've been around Europe quite a bit. In one book, I might want to show all the castles I've visited. Or in another book, I might just want to show my Austrian pictures. It's a chance to make a different story every time," he said.
Veronica Hugger, president of the National Scrapbooking Association, would call that scrapbooking. She says the hobby is simply a nod to the notion of telling stories through preserving memories. Those could be of a family vacation or used for healing purposes, such as helping someone get over a tragic loss.
She thinks it's great men are getting involved in a hobby--thanks to their digital toys--that is "99 percent women."
Lin Sorenson, editor in chief of Simple Scrapbooks magazine, put it this way: "Digital opens the door for many people who don't think of themselves as a scrapbooker. They think of the paper and glue and other objects, but they don't realize they are scrapping."
This may seem like a silly exercise in semantics, but one company has put a lot of thought about what not to call its new software product.
Lasting Impressions for Paper Inc. has developed and sold tools for scrapbooking for 17 years. But in April, it started shipping a powerful software program called MemoryMixer (www.memorymixer.com, $80).
The program combines photos, songs, videos, personal narration and a host of other tools to create a photo book or a DVD. It's ideal for my brother-in-law.
"We thought about the name for a year and a half," said Lane Hill, president of the Utah company.
"We went through upwards of a hundred names, and we turned away any that used the term `scrapbook.' We felt it turned off too many people."
But Lasting Impressions hasn't forgotten its roots. The software is sold online or through the company's traditional retailing partners, craft stores. The big-box retailers may get a version of the software down the road, but not yet.
"We have 10 years of experience with 3,000 stores," Hill explained. "We don't treat that lightly."
Nor should you treat the word "scrapbook" lightly. After all, there's a lot more of us out there scrapping than you realize.
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