This may be too hard but I'll ask anyways :)

[JasonJR]

Looking for some advice in general layout and how dimensions work...

I am making a collage of pictures for my 10th anniversary present for my wife. My general plan is to put a couple bigger pictures in the middle and then outline the edge in other pictures. My options for the total dimension at my local store are as follows - all in inches (apologies if that's harder) 16x20, 20x30, 20x20, 24x36 ... My question is what kind of sizes in general could i use for my pictures to get them to fit correctly. My thought was to make a kind of film strip graphic on the outside edge and put the pictures on the inside of that... I wanted to do 2 bigger pictures in the middle to kind of signify the now and then aspect. It will be a metal print.

Anyways any tips or advice will be most appreciated. I will be using GIMP to make everything if that makes a difference. I'm still going through pictures and collecting them in a folder.... My wife is the graphic design person lol but it defeats the purpose if I ask her for help to make it.

 

[Levi]

Honestly I'd just grab the pictures, sling them on the floor in a layout you like take a quick picture for reference and then replicate it on the computer so you can see how you need to adjust them to 'fit' into the desired size etc. As much as computers help designers in their day to day life a pen/pencil and a bit of paper is far more important at the start of a project for most of us.

Most photo's are still in a '35mm' format so think 5 by 7 inch sort of ratios. The joy of using tools like gimp is that it's non destructive so when setting it up on the screen it doesn't work out right you haven't actually cut up the original image.

 

[JasonJR]

Thanks Levi =)