A little while back, I discovered the most rarest of creatures: a man who scrapbooks and admits it publicly. Alun Maxwell from the UK not only scrapbooks, but has a blog dedicated to his hobby. Do visit Themed Scrapbook Idea.com to take a look at his most interesting layouts and themes.
Anyway, I invited Alum to be a guest poster here. I asked him specifically to give us some guidance on designing for a male audience. Almost all scrapbookers are women; we habitually design albums, cards and other projects to gift the men in our lives. We have no idea how to design for men. Even the scrapbook layouts you see that have a male theme are usually designed by a woman, based on what she “thinks” men like. Alun came to our rescue, and here is his post:
Alun says:
For most guys, the term ‘scrapbook’ conjures up memories of large, scruffy, dog-eared softback books from our distant past, filled with press cuttings of famous sporting occasions, car pics, airplane pics and collectible ‘sporting hero’ cards. These cards were from the set we never quite fully acquired. So when we first hear that our wife, sister, sister-in-law, or mother has found a new hobby called ‘scrapbooking’, we naturally expect to see car pics, airplane pics and maybe some of the collectible sport cards that we never managed to get. Maybe we could swap.
Imagine our confusion when we’re shown page after page of flower, ribbon and button embellishments around ‘umpteen’ photos of our kids. ‘That’s not a scrapbook’, we think to ourselves. ‘It’s not falling apart, for one thing, and where are the sport cards and Bruce Lee photo?’ But eventually we grudgingly admit that there is a certain artistic quality in the work and if only it wasn’t so ‘girlie’ we’d probably admit we were impressed.
Then we’re told that we are to be the subject matter of the next ‘layout’. ‘Layout’? Acid and lignin-free? It’s like another language. ‘You mean it was the acid and lignin that faded my Ford Mustang pics??’
So how can you make a layout for your guy that is going to appeal to him? Well, it strikes me that men are far more linked emotionally to their childhoods than women are. After all, show me a guy of any age that wouldn’t want to play with his grandson’s toys. How many women yearn to play with Barbie? (You can get ‘Divorce Barbie’ these days apparently. She comes with Ken’s house and Ken’s car!) No. As the saying goes, ‘the only difference between men and boys is the price of our toys!’
No, to get guys ‘oohing and aahing’ over your scrapbook layout, here are a few tips:
1. Go for sombre or primary colours. Pastels are a no no.
2. Use embellishments that are evocative of a boy’s childhood. Rub-on and stick-on transfers are perfect, because we spent hours doing that as children. We’ll find it relatable.
3. Avoid embellishments that are evocative of a girl’s childhood. For example, any accents involving sewing are way to near the Domestic Science area for comfort. Likewise, button and flower embellishments are way too girlie.
4. Men are usually a little uncomfortable with unabashed sentimentality. So I’d suggest the journaling was more affectionate than ‘schmaltzy’.
5. We like humour. (Excuse the ‘u’. I’m a Brit.) If the photos can be arranged to create humour from the chronology, we love that.
6. Above all, we like to see ourselves as the ‘hunter gatherer’, the provider, the hero. These days those lines are blurred and many of us earn less than our wives. I think most of us still view ourselves as our family’s protector though, and any journaling that stresses your admiration for us in that role is welcomed – especially when we’re not doing so great with it.
Above all, make sure you include some collectible sport cards. Only kidding.
Happy scrapping!
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Thank you, Alun.
