Today's Guest: Andy Soffian of Album Crafters in Miami, Florida
Today's Host: John Bentley
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Andy Soffian Expert PageANNOUNCER: This VTalk Radio's Spotlight is sponsored by morephotos.com bringing photographers to the web to sell, display, and proof images since 1998. Welcome to the VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: Today we are in the studio with Andy Soffian of Album Crafters of Miami, Florida. Album Crafters has been manufacturing exclusively for professional photographers offers that complete line of both traditional and contemporary, custom photographic albums and books. Welcome to the program, Andy.
ANDY: Thank you. Good morning, John.
JOHN: Well we're glad you could join us on VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. You have a photo album business down there. Tell us a little bit about that.
ANDY: Well we're a custom manufacturer. We manufacture high end photo albums exclusively for professional photographers. We've been doing it about 12 years, and we manufacture everything from scratch right here in our plant.
JOHN: How long have you actually been with the business, Andy?
ANDY: Right from the beginning; twelve years.
JOHN: Alright. Now tell me some of the lines of photo albums that you are offering right now.
ANDY: Well our original product was what we call a library bound album. And to photographers that means an album which is crafted with sanded and rounded edges, foil guilded edges. They're available in either a matted or a flush version. And they're bound together by hinge tapes, velum hinge tapes and that's what distinguishes the term library bound in our industry. And from that we evolved along with changing technology into coffee table books which came along with the digital revolution and is distinguished by all panoramic books where we've eliminated that center hinge tape and allowed each page to be a full spread from left to right and they're much more modern looking. They have cut edges. We've eliminated that foiled guilding which sort of distinguishes a more traditional book. And then we've got some specialty books and some low end books. And they're all basically variations of those two lines.
JOHN: Now, you've got a couple of interesting books on your website. The Santa Fe Art Book looks rather interesting. Why's that set apart from your other books.
ANDY: Well that's a, we call it a fine art book because it really is not a general purpose book. You can't put a lot of pictures in it. So you would never use it for example for a wedding, because you just can't cover enough images. It's limited to 30 pages. It is a matted book, meaning that the prints are mounted into onto a page which has a die cut matte laid over a liner board, a center board, and then the print is put in the middle of that hole so you have a frame around the print. It is library bound meaning it uses hinge tapes to hold it together, but it's really distinguished by a broad spine which is laced with a silk ribbon which gives it a very feminine and artistic look and oh in addition to that the prints are mounted only on the right side. The back sides are blank and that's purely for an artistic look so that you're focused only on just one print on each page, and it's really kind of a specialty book. We use it for...we get a lot of orders for engagement portraits and perhaps a session with a bride and a groom before a wedding where they would get together for a shoot before the wedding. Something more intimate than just the full wedding book.
JOHN: Now you also offer traditional albums. I noticed that the two traditional albums that you show on your website, one is called a Library Bound Flush and the and a Library Bound Reversible. Can you explain the difference between the two?
ANDY: Yeah, the Reversible really refers to a matted book which is, you know, where you have the pages dye cut with a hole in it and the print is put into the hole so that the matte frames the print. The word reversible has been around in the industry a long time and it really refers to the old days when just about everything that went into a book was an 8x10 and that 8x10 went in either vertical or horizontal and the book was big enough so that you can turn that print and not have to turn the book and so the term reversible which is what the original reference was for either horizontal or vertical print in a book has kind of stuck for years. It's really not a good term, but it has specific meaning in the industry, but it really means a matted book. The other book is flush which means the picture is the page. There's no matte and all you have is the hinge which holds the print in at the binding side and then the rest of the page is print.
JOHN: Today we are in the studio with Andy Soffian of Album Crafters of Miami, Florida, and you're listening to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. We're going to step aside for these important messages, we'll be right back.
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ANNOUNCER: This VTalk Radio Spotlight is sponsored by morephotos.com, the online photo sales solution to professional photographers worldwide.
ANNOUNCER: We now return you to the VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: You're listening to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. Today we are in the studio with Andy Soffian of Album Crafters of Miami, Florida. Welcome back to on VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight, Andy.
ANDY: Thank you, John.
JOHN: Now we've been talking about the photo album books that you offer at your company. A number of really nice designs. I wanted you to expound a little bit on the Silk Folio book that you offer.
ANDY: Ok. The Silk Folio is not actually a book. What a folio is is really a complex frame that would sit on a desk or on a table. And it's a fold out. We make it in either a double fold or a triple fold meaning that as it sits on the table you'd either have a left and a right side or a left side, a middle, and a right side. The outside is upholstered in a Japanese silk cloth, and on the inside we mount mattes which have different dye cut configurations, different holes in them, and the customer would select the layout for each page and we would then custom configure each page. It could be, for example, a single 8x10 on a page or two 5x7s or four 5x5s. We have a selection of different layouts and then the customer would either supply us with the prints or we would print them and build these folios, and they make beautiful gifts. They are trimmed with a silk ribbon and they're designed for somebody to put their family pictures in it and set it on their desk.
JOHN: What about the covers to these books? What kind of material are you using?
ANDY: We have about 50 different covers. We use glove leathers which are essentially smooth leathers in a variety of different colors. We use textured and antique leathers. Their top grade cowhide. They're in the case of the textured leathers, they're artificially textured so they would be done with a pebble grain or done with antiquing which is a light dark effect. We have some synthetic leathers for people who are against using animal skins or for a low end book, and we use Japanese silks and suedes which are another variation of leather. Those products, those covers, if I may, are available across the full line of books.
JOHN: You certainly have a wide variety of options on your website. That certainly is a big plus for any professional photographer that's looking for something unusual or certainly a lot of different choices for their customers. What about turn around time for a project like this?
ANDY: Well our books vary in turn around time depending on the service. We offer three levels of service. We offer a binding only service where a customer would send us the prints, and we would just bind the book. And that turn around varies from a week to two weeks depending on the type of book. We have a print and bind service where a customer can upload to our computer, to our server, their file...their digital files, and we print them, and then bind them. And we also have a full design service where customers would upload the images that their brides had selected, somewhere 70 and 120 images more or less, and we would design a composite or design coffee table book. We would post that design for approval and then go ahead and print it and bind it. The turn around time on that is around two weeks. Sometimes there is a delay while the customer gets the bride to approve the design, but not withstanding that delay it's about two weeks.
JOHN: What do you think makes your company unique over your competition, or what are some of the strengths of your company?
ANDY: Well, you know, it's really hard to be unique today. At our latest convention in Las Vegas, there were 68 binders there. So it's a very competitive industry. We are full service so we evolved from doing traditional books into the industry changing digital age with contemporary books. So I think one of the advantages we have is that we have a full line of books. A lot of the newer companies have sort of popped up with digital books and while a lot of them are very fine, I don't think they offer the breath of choices and the cross section of books that we do. We come from a long line of experienced binders, and I think that makes a difference, and my partner and I are here all the time. So if anybody has any issues with us, we're there to take care of it. I think we're very responsive to our customers' needs. You know, I don't think there's any secret to success. I think you have to have a viable product, and I think you have to have good service. I think that's true for every business today. We try and live up to that.
JOHN: Well before I let you go, Andy would you kindly give our listening audience your website and contact information.
ANDY: Sure. Our website is www.albumcrafters.com and you can reach us at info@albumcrafters.com via email or you can call our customer service department at (800) 338-7213.
JOHN: Well I want to thank you for joining us, Andy. Thank you for joining us on VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight, Andy.
ANDY: My pleasure, John, I enjoyed it very much.
JOHN: I am your host, John Bentley, VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. I want to thank everybody for joining to us today. Have a great afternoon.
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