Carly Quellman is a movement artist, storyteller and disability advocate whose work challenges and strips perspective around the human experience. As an advocate for young women, artistic potential and the "anomaly" identity, Carly dedicates her time to spreading the power of expression. She resides in Los Angeles.
After I spent a whopping three months organizing my phone's photo albums to reflect the various places I've lived in and traveled to throughout my 20s, I realized I'd never physically commemorated my time spent in said places. Though, I certainly had the pictures -- 10,611 to be exact -- to prove it.
This brought me face to face with Mixbook, an online photo book creation and memory curation platform. It recently added artificial intelligence design technology -- an AI-powered caption generator, along with "Mixbook Movies," an AI-powered video created from your photo book, with customizable themes and accompanying music.
Founded in 2006 by Andrew Laffoon and Aryk Grosz, friends who met during their studies at UC Berkeley, Mixbook is a collaborative online photo book creation platform. Prices for Mixbook's products start from between $0.15 and $90, depending on paper type, size, number of pages and other product personalizations.
In the nearly two decades since its launch, the company has expanded from yearbooks and photo books to include cards, calendars and other photo products, like its new AI-powered design technology and Mixbook Movies.
The company's goal is to make personal storytelling intuitive, achievable and fast. But as I skimmed through photos of time spent in Toronto, New York, Copenhagen, Portland and Puerto Rico, I found myself hesitant to select certain photos over others. I was oddly worried about what AI could intuit from my photos and art direction, and even the photo placement and layout.
Was I really concerned about how a non-human entity understood, processed and described my photos? Yes. But was I eager to have AI help generate fun and creative ideas for my photo book? Also yes.
Mixbook's AI features suggest captions, text elements and layouts, allowing you to edit and customize the suggestions according to your preferences, enhancing the narrative behind the images.
As a result, you can create professional-looking photo books that encapsulate the essence of your experiences -- all as part of Mixbook's ongoing efforts to blend technology and creativity to preserve and share its users' stories.
Once I began uploading photos, Mixbook immediately stepped in to accommodate the process. After setting up my photo placement, I used its AI caption generator. Caption ideas were set up as different themes, including smart, by topic and location.
For my leading photo, I was impressed to see that AI knew my photo was taken in Brooklyn (the Brooklyn Museum, to be exact). Though the caption generator feature was intended to be used this way, it still felt thoughtful and personal, reflecting a significant time in my life.
I also spent time playing with typefaces to alter the mood and feeling the text conveyed on top of my photo. If you're lacking inspiration, the caption generator acts as a creative boost to better develop and understand the storytelling your photos naturally convey.
My favorite feature was AI's ability to regenerate results, even if I wasn't satisfied with its attempt. I was struck by Mixbook's second attempt at generating text for my photo. So much so that I kept it in as part of my photo book's final design. From my experience, if you give AI the freedom to continually regenerate new ideas across its subcategories, you are bound to find something that either you like, or inspires a caption of your own.
The process took less than 2 hours, mostly with most of the time spent placing my photos in layout and playing with features once they were laid out. With upgrades like choosing a hardcover book and using premium lustre paper, my Mixbook Photo Book totaled $65 before tax and shipping, and close to $100 following. But I also created a 10x10-inch Deluxe Square Glossy Premium Lustre Hardcover Photo Book -- 11 hand-selected pages with my travels in mind and text built out across them.
I can't knock any company that uses AI in a way that's nothing more (or less!) than feel-good and genuinely helpful. Mixbook's caption generator helped me riff and come up with captions that felt true to me and what I was trying to evoke through my photos. And after some trial and error, I found some text that suited the story I wanted to tell with my photos. (I guess my AI-powered anxiety was unnecessary in the end.)
Additionally, receiving my Mixbook Movie at the end of the process allowed me to digitally share my photo book with friends and family who were curious about it or the places I had been, with music themes and specific songs to match. These features were nice to have in the process and provided additional offerings when deciding if the price of my photo book was worth it.
Mixbook consistently features 40 to 50% discount codes on its website, which helps keep prices accessible. I bought my photo book without a discount code.
I also appreciated Mixbook's parameters throughout the process. When my copy was too close to the binding, I found my cursor in the "red zone." I was also flagged for not having 10 pages total in my photo book, which restricted me from checking out.
But when I received my book, I was a little bummed to see that even with these callouts, the text on the backside of the book was, indeed, touching the binding of the book. The photo book also contained extra white pages in the back section, though I had met its page requirements. While these features aren't AI-related, I'd keep a close eye out for proximity within your design in hopes of not being disappointed.
While Mixbook isn't the leading company for innovative photo editing or out-of-the-box typography, its success is built around memories, and commemorating the pleasant feeling from them. In turn, its new AI-powered additions are a nice add-on. The AI can step in as a collaborator without entirely removing humans from the process.
For special occasions, a sentimental gift or simply a bonding activity to do with friends and family, Mixbook is proof that AI can be a benefit to humans. Its product affirms that it can't replace us -- or our memories. But this specific use of AI can help both become larger than life.
