Last year Graphic Designer Jessica Helfand released a “Scrapbooks, An American History“. National Scrapbooking day was back in May (5.03) and we didn’t have a blog at the time so I had no place to point this out. She wrote a short essay on the subject at her blog Design Observer. In the clip above she describes her book and the process of her work. The book is available at Amazon and on that page you will also find some other short clips that walk the viewer through some of her favorites she examined during her research.

I personally find it interesting, as part of the art industry and one that supplies scrapbooking enthusiasts, how much has changed and how much is similar. Motives for making them remain, but the execution largely has been affected by the industry that has developed around them. There are those that love the latest tools and embellishments and create a polished look and those who want the aesthetic qualities of old journals and scrapbooks and strive to achieve the same weathered affect.

Hopefully the history of these books can shed some light on the contemporary activity itself, personally and artistically.