The MILK design aesthetic
Honed by decades of publishing beautiful books
At MILK Books we draw on our award-winning publishing heritage and bookmaking expertise so you can create beautifully designed Photo Books and Albums with ease.
Our founder is part of the team behind award-winning publishing house Blackwell and Ruth. The timeless design principles that have seen them entrusted with creating beautiful books for some of the world’s leading figures, inform the standards you see today at MILK Books.
Every design choice available to you has been carefully curated by our experienced creative team, so you can make your own high quality coffee table books in a way that’s fun and intuitive.
Whether for your wedding, travels or any of life’s special milestones, our Designer Templates, fonts and cover designs have been thoughtfully chosen to highlight your cherished memories beautifully. Continue reading to learn more about our approach to layout design and typography.
“Let’s create something people can use to create their own really beautiful books, so they can capture the moments in their lives and make a truly beautiful book that symbolically says something that’s really important.”
Geoff Blackwell, Founder
Our Designer Templates
Our Designer Templates refer to the layouts available when creating each page of your Photo Book or Album. You have the flexibility to choose from hundreds, with options that include 1 to 24 images per double-page spread and text.
Our Designer Templates are there to guide you and make the creation process fun and easy. We’re continually adding more options based on customer feedback, but one thing will always remain: we consider design best practices, from margins and spacing to the hierarchy of elements, so that you don’t have to.
We want the final book or album you create to look professional and beautifully designed, so simply let our templates bring your life’s most special moments back to life and enjoy the process.
Our Fonts
We offer seven fonts in our design selection. All fonts have been carefully selected and chosen for their elegant, modern typeface, their legibility, and their natural ability to complement your beloved moments.
Our creative team strives to help customers create books with confidence and have selected fonts to match your different design needs. We want to give you flexibility to tell your story your way, without being overwhelmed by choice. Our refined selection gives you freedom, but promises a professional quality result.
Learn more about our fonts.
Our Designer Covers
Our eye-catching Designer Covers, exclusive to our Premium range of Photo Books and Albums, are available in more than 50 designs and a variety of different colors. From subtle and elegant to bold and fun, our selection of Designer Covers gives you the freedom to create a one-of-a-kind keepsake that is of the upmost quality and style.
Much like our Designer Templates and fonts, every Designer Cover has been selected with your finished Photo Book or Album in mind. Whatever the tone of your photo keepsake and whatever the occasion you’re creating it for, there will be a timeless cover design to suit.
Our Designer Covers are printed onto your Photo Book or Album using the latest in UV print technology which applies a subtly raised ink into your chosen fabric. There are a variety of luxurious color options, chosen specifically for the optimal print result across our range of cover fabrics. If paired with our colored or natural linen, it produces a clean smooth finish. If paired with our coated cloth or leather fabrics, the result gives an elegant, raised look and a textured feel.
Learn more about our Designer Covers.
MILK Design Principles
Layout design and typography play an important role in visual communication. We consider every spread a work of visual art. Here’s an in-depth insight into just some of our design practices and why they’re so important.
Visual hierarchy refers to the ordering of elements in the way in which you want people to view them. Because MILK was founded on the premise of celebrating Moments of Inspiration, Love, and Kinship, it’s the photos that are considered the most important ‘element’ in the hierarchy. That’s why the majority of our templates are image-only or have image templates above text boxes.
White space is essential for giving each element on a page ‘breathing’ space. We use white space in the form of margins, space around images, and between lines of text. Don’t be afraid of it. We want to highlight your special moments, not clutter them.
Our creative team uses an ‘invisible grid’ to create each template and provide tailored options to suit each of our formats, sizes and orientations. Working with an ‘invisible grid’ ensures every page within your project will have structure and margins for optimal viewing.
When you turn the page of a book, your eye is naturally drawn to the right. That's why we intentionally set text boxes on the left-hand side and images on the right in our Designer Templates with larger text boxes. We want to give the most importance to your images and memories. Text should support your imagery, not distract from it.
Designer Templates with multiple images maintain consistent spacing. This is done intentionally to enhance the visual aesthetics of the page; the eye perceives things better when everything is organized rather than ‘floating’.
Our Designer Templates are organized by aspect ratio (which represents the proportional relationship between the height and width of an image) to best accommodate different styles of photography:
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- 4:3 Standard – This is the most common ratio taken by smartphones.
- 3:2 – This aspect ratio is suitable for most professional photography.
- Square – This ratio grew in popularity alongside the rise of Instagram. It’s a great option for our Square formats.
