Why do class reunions always lack a decent souvenir?
As we welcome another graduation season, when we open the photo album on our mobile phones, those old photos of people wearing school uniforms and smiling without scruples can always bring a warm touch to people's hearts and obviously increase their emotions.
Not long ago, my high school class monitor shouted out in the group that this year’s party would be something different. It should not just be about eating, drinking, and taking group photos.
The group exploded. One person proposed making commemorative T-shirts, while another suggested custom-made thermos mugs. In the end, the one with the most votes turned out to be a collection of photo albums that can be held in hand to look through.
If you think about it carefully, although the photos displayed electronically have conveniences, they lack the sense of ritual of holding them in the palm of your hand and flipping through them page by page.
Basically, what matters about the souvenir from the class reunion is not its value, but its ability to encourage people to sit down and communicate with each other while looking at the souvenir, and then reassemble the memories that have become blurred into clear outlines and clear details.
A carefully crafted photo album captures this nostalgic feeling.
Personalized customization makes each photo album unique
The existing photo albums on the market are all similar. However, the photo albums used for class reunions must bear the unique logo recording traces of "our class".
People who really know their stuff will start paying attention from the cover.
You can create an embossed cover with a photo of a past class, or use a well-known campus landmark as a base image.
Compared with other aspects, the importance of inner page layout is more prominent. The personalized customized photo album has such characteristics. It can be classified according to the year, and can also be divided into chapters according to the theme of the activity, such as "many things that happened during the military training of the first year of high school", "artistic performances held in the second year of high school", "days and nights of high school students preparing for the exam", etc. You can even scan and add quotations from the handwritten records of classmates.
At last year's party, a friend created a separate page for the homeroom teacher's handwritten message. At the party, the former homeroom teacher saw it and his eyes instantly turned red.
This kind of unique detail cannot be provided by any assembly line product.
High-quality printing to restore those faded old photos
Many people think that photo albums are just photos inserted into a book, but this is not the case.
Many of those old photos from the past were taken with the help of film cameras, and the negatives had long been thrown away, and the electronic versions themselves after being rephotographed were very blurry.
If the printing process is not up to standard, the result will be a dark shadow.
The high-quality printing process uses professional-level digital printing methods, which can brighten the dark details in old photos, so that the parts with yellowed edges can still maintain the original feel of the era. At the same time, everyone's smiling face can be clearly distinguished.
Previously, someone printed a group photo. The photo was taken on the playground. The color transition between blue sky and white clouds was so natural that you could even see the reflection from the windows of the teaching building in the distance.
Such an effect is worthy of those precious memories.
Environmentally friendly materials, safe to hold in your hands and safe to put at home
Most of the class reunion souvenirs will be taken home and placed on the bookshelf or coffee table.
This involves an issue that many people ignore: material safety.
Some relatively cheap photo albums have a very pungent smell from the plastic covers. After a year and a half, they will turn yellow and become brittle, and the photos will be damaged accordingly.
There are slightly better collection photo albums nowadays. The cover is made of environmentally friendly cardboard and the inner pages are made of acid-free paper. The photos will not be corroded over time.
The binding uses biodegradable glue or thread binding, and the pages will not fall apart no matter how many times you turn them over.
One time I went to a friend's house and saw that his graduation photo album from ten years ago was as new as ever. After asking, I learned that I had spent dozens of extra yuan to choose a version made of environmentally friendly materials. Looking back now, the small price difference is nothing.
The capacity is large enough to hold the memories of the entire youth
There are at least thirty or forty people in the class. From the beginning of enrollment to graduation, there are hundreds of photos taken at events, occasional sneak shots, sports games, spring outings, New Year's Day parties, etc. If you choose at will, there will be hundreds of photos.
If the album capacity is too small, you will eventually have to cut it down, and this souvenir will no longer be complete.
The photo album is designed to be reasonable, and its capacity is generally in the range of fifty to one hundred pages. Each page can be placed with many photos. With the flexible layout technology, not only can a group photo of the whole class be placed, but also a place for individual photos can be reserved for each student.
What's more considerate is that some customized photo albums have a "message page" reserved. On the day of the party, everyone can write a few words on the spot, making it a vivid "mobile classmate record".
Easy to carry, open memories anytime and anywhere
Nowadays, people are spread all over the world, and class reunions are often held in hotels or B&Bs. If the souvenirs are too large and heavy, it will be inconvenient to carry them around, and it will be troublesome to take them home after the party is over.
A moderately sized photo album is about one-half the size of an A4 and is two to three centimeters thick. It can hold a sufficient amount of photos and is easy to put into a backpack or handbag easily and smoothly.
The cover has a stiff quality and can protect the inner pages. In normal times, it can be placed in the car or in a drawer in the office. When you miss your old classmates, you can take it in your hand and flip through the two pages at any time.
Once when I was on a high-speed train for a business trip, I saw the elder brother sitting next to me take out a photo album from his bag. He laughed while looking at it. After asking, he confirmed that it was really a souvenir he had just brought back from a class reunion.
The warmth you can carry with you is more real than any electronic photo album.
Emotional sustenance is more thoughtful than any gift
What are you most afraid of at class reunions?
I’m afraid that after the fun is over, nothing will be left.
There were hundreds of photos in the WeChat group, but they were all deleted by new messages within two days.
However, a photo album is different. It will be placed in a prominent position and every time you see it, you will recall the laughter that was made during the party.
A class reunion was held last year, and the organizer started collecting photos three months in advance, creating a "time axis" photo album of the twenty years of changes from graduation to the present.
During the party that day, when a certain page was turned, several people shouted out "I took this picture!" The feeling of being remembered and cherished is the most precious thing besides gifts.
So you see, the collected photo album is more than just a souvenir, it is more like a moving museum of youth.
There are many trivial things to prepare for a class reunion. However, a photo album is definitely the item that occupies the highest position in terms of cost-effectiveness among many trivial things.
It is not expensive, but it can accommodate two decades of mutual friendship. It is not heavy, but it carries heavy memories.
Every detail shows the organizer's thoughtfulness, from the personalized cover to the environmentally friendly materials, from the high-definition printing to the design with sufficient capacity.
If you're still wondering what to bring to a party, try this option.
When everyone is sitting together, people are scrambling to find the appearance of themselves when they were young in the photo album, and then you understand that this gift has been chosen appropriately.
Comments NOTHING