Type and press Enter.

10 Out-of-the-Box Photo Book Ideas

A baby announcement photo book idea | Motif

Reading Time: 5 minutes read

It’s crazy to think of how quickly photography has advanced. Just 20 years ago, one-use cameras were a novelty, allowing us to photograph on-the-go. Photo prints were costly, but there was nothing quite like the thrill of picking them up and anticipating how they’d turned out.  

Now, we carry quality cameras in our pockets, most outdoing even the best digital cameras from less than a decade ago. We’re photographing more than ever before—and we need ways to enjoy those images! Enter photo books. They’re the perfect solution to encapsulate your best days and memories in a beautiful way you can enjoy over and over. 

Not sure where to start or exactly how to use your photos? We can help! These photo book ideas are sure to get your creative juices flowing.

1. Baby book

Photo albums aren’t quite what they were in the past—no more sticky pages or three-ring photo binders. Instead, you can turn your baby’s first year into art with a custom photo book. Start with photos from your maternity shoot or their birth, then introduce each month with a milestone photo and two-page spread. Use the back to show their growth with a unique spread that shows each of those milestone photos in progression. 

You can include professionally taken photos, their birthday party, documentation of all their first holidays, and developmental firsts. Each year to follow is bound to be special, but that first year, in particular, is so full of new experiences. Showcase every single one in a beautiful book.

2. Wedding album

We remember evaluating wedding photographers, admiring their work and style. Each pitched an album service which, though beautiful, came with a staggering price tag. With Motif, creating your own custom album has never been easier—or more affordable! 

When you get your high-resolution photos, put them right into Photos in macOS, and use Motif’s autoflow feature to have a beautiful, professionally designed book created for you in just moments. Not only is your book in your budget (that you can set up front!), but it’s printed using the highest-quality inks and papers so your wedding day book will stand the test of time.

A black and white wedding photo book idea | Motif

3. Work portfolio

Many professions rely on work samples to sell their services. Think of a cake bakery, photographer, illustrator or artist, to name just a few. Rather than placing photos of your work into slip sheets, why not turn them into a custom book? 

Your work portfolio will be professional and beautiful, automatically creating a great first impression with potential clients. You can add an introduction upfront if it’s something prospects might peruse independently and even create section pages and/or a table of contents to introduce different types of work.

4. Custom storybooks

We’ve never met a child who didn’t love a good bedtime story! The only way to make bedtime even better is with a custom story that brings them in as a main character. Motif’s flexible tools allows you to create fun photo book ideas with incredible detail. 

Include custom illustrations or stage a photo shoot with your kiddos acting out scenes; then use them as the illustrations throughout the book. Better yet, let your child help illustrate the story you craft. Send the whole thing—images and text—to Motif and encapsulate your special bedtime story forever.

5. Family recipe book

Digital recipes are great, but if you’re like us, you have recipes saved from approximately 5,000 different sources and can’t ever find the one you actually want. Fix this by creating your own recipe book that captures your favorite recipes all in one place.

A recipe photo book idea | Motif

6. Spruce up your coffee table

Create a coffee table book that truly means something to you! Create a book about your favorite pet. Use the pages to tell the story of your travels. Or, create a color-theme book that unites photos you took and beautifully curated to tie into your living room’s color theme. The options are endless and only you can create your perfect coffee table book.

7. Child artwork album

Kids are constantly crafting, and as much as we’d love to keep every precious doodle, we just can’t—there isn’t enough counter space in the world! But you can photograph those sweet drawings and upload them to Motif to condense and capture for life. You’ll love looking back at this sweet book, especially as the years tick by, and down the road, your little one will love seeing a memento from their past.

8. Mark your milestones

Celebrate your own successes or those of your family with a book dedicated to your personal milestones. Create a spread for your first family camping trip or a book celebrating each of the half marathons you’ve completed. 

Are you a military family? Create a book that tells the story of each of your relocations and the great people you’ve met along the way. Document your swim career—each meet and the ribbons won.

9. Music book

Create a custom playlist that includes the songs you love to play on the piano—rather than digging through countless music books or flipping pages, trying to remember exactly which of Chopin’s nocturnes it is that you love, find it easily in your own custom book. 

Using Motif’s text features, you can even include a table of contents or annotate the title to something you’ll remember more easily.

10. All in a (school) year

Kids are constantly bringing home school work, be it special art projects, an impressive math test score, or particularly notable creative writing piece. We want to keep them all but would quickly fill a storage locker if we did. 

A custom photo book is the perfect way to curate these noteworthy pieces into a collection that condenses space and tells a story of its own. Scan or take a photo of them, and use the Motif app to create a one-of-a-kind journal of the school year’s progress and most memorable moments.