When you write a book called Scrapbooks: An American History
Helfand, a graphic designer, first ticked off scrapbookers with her piece for her Design Observer column in March 2005, titled Scrapbooking: The New Paste-up. At best Helfand is uninformed (Helfand repeatedly describes Creative Memories as based in Utah, not Minnesota) and at worst her piece is condescending and insulting.
Quotes like “It’s at once horrifying and fascinating to witness the degree to which design is being discussed online by people whose concept of innovation is measured by novel ways to tie bows” and “I could write an entire post just on the scrapbooker’s predisposition toward fonts like “Whimsy Joggle” and “Pool Noodle Outline” but I will try and restrain myself” did nothing to endear her to scrapbookers.
Outraged scrapbookers engaged Helfand (and some of her graphic designer readers) in a full-on battle in the comment section of the article for several weeks. Apparently she didn’t get the message that her opinions were offensive back then to a portion of her book’s market.
Scrapbooks: An American History, Helfand’s book, came out from Yale Press on November 3rd. She’s been in full publicity mode and has managed to once again insult scrapbookers, this time with the help of Salon in today’s Beyond the Valley of the Doilies. The subtitle starts out with “The billion-dollar scrapbooking industry may be cheesy…,” nicely encapsulating the attitude of the piece toward scrapbookers.
Helfand still is woefully uninformed, attributing the scrapbook boom to the events of 9/11 (when in fact it started well before that). And, she is still condescending and offensive.
With quotes like, “It’s just when you see this $2.6 billion industry and people critiquing each other’s work as “cute” — it makes me break out in hives” or “My critique of current scrapbooking materials is that it creates a meaningless visual grammar” Helfand proved that she didn’t learn her lesson about the scrapbook market the first time.
Lesson #1 in marketing to scrapbookers (or any other market): Don’t insult the people that you want to buy your product.
And in case Helfand’s opinion of scrapbooking was left in doubt by readers who might actually believe her claims that she actually isn’t a snobbish graphic designer, but that scrapbooking “fascinates me sociologically”, this quote should leave no doubt about her opinion of scrapbooking – and scrapbookers:
So you take this scrapbooker, and she’s thinking, I’m overweight and I don’t want a picture of myself in the scrapbook, but I do want to show off my cute kids and pretty pink ribbons. It’s this externalizing idea of, I want this to look good for everyone else so if I ever get famous my scrapbooks will show that I’m perfect.
Helfand shouldn’t be shocked (and neither should Salon) that scrapbookers showed up again to voice their displeasure with her. Scrapbooker Marci Lambert did an excellent job of summing up the scrapbookers’ sentiments:
of course, as soon as i saw the headline for this article, i knew what to expect: a superior attitude from both the book author and the interviewer about the masses of scrappers who eat twinkies and use jolee’s stickers. it’s certainly not the first article on this theme. in fact, it seems to be the only way scrappers are described.
so maybe the general scrapping public is not creating “art” or even “design”. why is that bad? scrapping is just a means of personal expression by people with varying levels of talent. why be so harsh on a craft that is generally meant to be seen by a fairly small circle of people?
Perhaps the worst part of all of this is that Helfand seems to be under the misconception that she is defending scrapbookers against assault from graphic designers who disrespect the craft. She doesn’t seem to understand that in “defending” scrapbooking by saying that it is the ugly stepsister of graphic design but still its family, she is still calling it the ugly stepsister – not exactly a compliment.
I really hope for her sake that Helfand wasn’t relying on scrapbookers as a major part of the marketing plan for her book. Because I can’t imagine any of them who’ve heard things like those above from her wanting to give her their money.
Actually, I take that back. I hope scrapbookers were a part of her marketing plan and that their refusal to buy her book means it ends up rotting on the discount tables of bookstores. Because maybe then she’d get the message that it is not a good idea to be condescending towards participants in an industry about which she pretends to talk knowledgeably while not even knowing basic facts.
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About Nancy Nally
Here are my intuitions about scrapbookers’ getting a bad rap: It’s a woman’s thing, and we’re seeing vestiges of old sexism. Yes, this comes from women too. Second, its not a hobby restricted to the wealthy; so there’s classism too. The old look-down- on-the-masses routine. Believe me if this were a pursuit limited to women on upper Madison Avenue, a whole different attitude would prevail. Thirdly, and perhaps most important (I am not LDS), it’s known to many to have started/been inspired by LDS values. Do not underestimate the affects of religious prejudice. It’s as much a rural and Western phenomenon in the U.S. as it is urban –maybe more so. This brings out the old clod hopper prejudices. I’m primarily a card maker, whose friends and family appreciate my work. But when my friends see me get excited over supplies in a store, they scrunch up their noses, “Ugh, scrapbooking! You’re NOT a scrapbooker, are you?” Yes, I’ve done a couple of scrapbooks. So now does my I.Q. fall 100 points? We’re the victims of multiple prejudices. We probably also pose a threat to design professionals who see real talent in the unschooled ranks and want their tuitions refunded.
Good article, Nancy. When a writer states so many inaccuracies on the subject they have “researched,” you have to disregard their viewpoint–clearly they didn’t get a good handle on it. It always disappoints me.
I also think Addie made a good point in the comment above. I think she is right. We get criticized for being cheesy and dowdy. But when some of us shows some knowledge of design, we’re also laughed at. It’s a sad prejudice–not only against women, but also against mothers.
THank you for this! Please check out the reviews on Amazon.com. Hopefully mine will post (needless to say I gave it 1 star….cause you have to give it something) with my opinion on the book (brief), and the author-not so brief. Maybe you could encourage others to voice their opinions as well. Ms. Helfand doesn’t seem to have any trouble voicing hers.
I love saving money….how much ribbon do you think I could get for the price of this book???? ROTFLMAO!
Thank you, Nancy, for your well-written article. Obviously, she’s an IDIOT because who writes a book about American scrapbooks and then insults their KEY (multi-billion dollar) purchasing audience in the process? Who does she think is going to buy her book, if not scrapbookers? It sure won’t be her kewl graphic designer friends.
I’d been reading the various articles about this book and wondering why she’s so mean to scrapbookers. If she doesn’t like it, then that’s fine, but why be so nasty?
I hope that the scrapbooking lobby is able to shout her down. And she’s really silly for not realizing that scrapbookers would have been a huge market for her book (especially as Xmas gifts!)
By the way, did you see this on Oprah.com:
http://www.oprah.com/article/food/partyplanning/pkgholiday/20081103_orig_holidaynewtraditions?
At least Oprah doesn’t look down on scrapbooking!
Hello… it seems a bit unclear in your comments whether you have actually read the book. Meaning, the essay she first wrote was in 2005 and was, probably, snobbish. But then she did listen to the comments, because she decided to investigate more and try to understand it from the scrapbooker’s perspective. Your next set of comments is about the Salon article, but not actually about the contents of the book itself. Personally, I thought the Salon article was framed to be a bit sensationalized or why start it with negative thoughts about scrapbookers.
But the book itself talks about the fact that men scrapbooked as well as women. The book talks about that in the past scrapbooking was about finding a space for one’s authentic self beyond expectations of self presentation of mother, wife, society woman, or factory worker. So then scrapbooks were messy, as we all are before we try to clean things up for public view.
The book talks about how scrapbooking is now another form of self-conscious presentation in which the authentic self is represented by Martha Stewart. Not even Martha Stewart is Martha Stewart without an army of gardeners, cooks, designers, make-up artists, and stylists. But when we buy her stickers, we are buying into her image and our desire to be a little like that image.
So if we are accusing Helfand of judging the scrapbook by the cover, are we not doing the same thing by judging the book by two articles, one of which is no longer a reflection of how Helfand feels about scrapbooking.
Thanks, Dori, for writing this. I do think the interview was framed in a way that does not reflect what I wrote in the book or, for that matter, why I wrote it. My book is a celebration of women — and men! — who treasured their memories in scrapbook form, just like contemporary scrapbookers do today. My perspective on embellishments fostring a “meaningless visual grammar” isn’t a slight on embellishments, but a shout-out to all those scrapbookers who are overlooking the little things lying around the house that are authentic reflections of who they are. And we ALL have them: post it notes and receipts and scraps of our lives. Finally, the whole comment about Twinkies was not a critique of women (men eat them too, many of them in my own family) but a question about how scrapbooking is positioned as a feel-good, group activity. That’s all.
I should also say that nowhere in my book, or throughout my interviews, or on my blog have I intentionally done anything to criticize women who scrapbook. My critique, as an artist and a teacher and yes, a working designer is a cultural one, and it comes from curiosity and a desire to help to bridge the connections between what it meant to produce a scrapbook a generation ago, and how that relates to what so many millions of people make today. True: my comments on Design Observer in that initial post were critical, and that’s why I devoted three years of my life to writing this book.
If the comments in the Salon interview were offensive, I apologize, but please understand that these things balloon into monsters when taken out of context. I am not now, nor have I ever been the sort of person to vilify others, especially other women. But to discuss our work is to question it, to advance our understanding of it, and make it (and by conjecture, ourselves) better in the process. That was, and is, my goal for this book, which is a celebration of the American scrapbook, period. To all of you who believe in and contribute to this most noble of diaristic art forms, Bravo: this book is for you.
Based on your comment….you still just don’t get it. And I am not going to try to explain why. If you have spent three years writing this book, to better understand current day scrapbooking, and you still don’t get it. You never will.
Jessica,
Thank you for taking the time to address this issue personally. I do think it’s possible that some of your comments were misconstrued (or ‘misframed’), but it would also seem that the lady doth protest a bit too much at this point.
Your article failed miserably if, as you claim, its intent was to critique the fact that scrapbooking has become more about consumerism than memory preservation.
Instead of focusing on the point you claim you were attempting to make (i.e., ephemera from your home is far more worthy of preservation than ‘ephemera’ that comes out of a factory in China), you chose to belittle the eating habits, appearances, design skills and career aspirations of those who enjoy the hobby. (For the record, I completely agree with your point about over-commercialization.)
I am a professional writer – perhaps my next article will be about Ivy League non-writers who feel their credentials in one area make them qualified to write about them. (A degree from Yale in design does not make one a writer, does it?)
As a professional in the field – one used to thorough (and often scathing) critique – I must say that you should stick to the designing and leave the writing to the pros. A ‘real’ writer would have made the point of his writing clear immediately; that you’ve spent three years trying to clear up ‘misunderstandings’ about your article certainly speaks to your skill as a writer, does it not?
Perhaps you should apologize to those of us who are ‘real’ writers for having polluted our landscape with your very own brand of “word fetti.”
Or, perhaps, you should humbly accept that you ticked off a huge percentage of the audience you’re now attempting to peddle your book to and leave it at that.
I checked out the Amazon link and watched the videos. I pretty much dig what she’s saying and I will probably order her book.
Like it or not, there’s truth in what she says that is negative about the modern-day scrapbook industry. A collection of premade things that you buy and slap on a page along with your photos and little or none of your own thoughts? That’s not going to be all that valuable even to its maker down the road. It just isn’t.
There’s much about modern scrapbooking that’s really cool. The documenting, the art of it, and the emphasis on journaling to go along with the photos to the extent it’s put into practice–those are good things.
There’s also much that’s really sort of just silly. I’m a scrapbooker, die hard at that, and I can fully recognize and admit that there’s a lot of over-the-top foolishness going on with the whole scrapbooking hobby. It’s part of why the hobby is fading in popularity–people made the superficial, meaningless scrapbooks, books that showcased products bought in scrapbook boutiques but crowded out everything personally meaningful and worth documenting but perhaps one small token photo–and forget any sort of journaling–then looked back at them and said “I’m not doing that again; it looks dumb now.” Dumb, empty, not connected, silly. I’ve learned a few of those lessons the hard way myself, many moons ago (I’ve been scrapbooking since 1994 or so; it’s been a long time). I try to focus my own stuff on what I think is important, which is the photos, the memorabilia, and above all, the stories.
I think I get your perspective, Jessica. What I watched and read was compelling and sort of fascinating, and more than that–it was how I have been feeling about the art of scrapbooking for years and years now. I still buy the embellishments, but when I sit down to scrapbook, 90% of them stay off the page. I like to say I buy them for cards and other paper crafts, which is sort of true, but I really don’t buy them for my scrapbooks.
For those of you who have had the knee-jerk reaction to attack this author for daring to cast aspersions on your hobby, take a step back. Is what she is saying really all that out of line? I’ve probably been a scrapbooker as long or longer than most of the people who are freaking out at the audacious Jessica Helfand, who dared speak her opinion about how we scrapbook these days, and while I don’t share her perspective 100%, I think there is an element of “shooting the messenger” here. She is carrying a message that many of you don’t agree with, or perhaps don’t want to hear, but underneath all the emotion, is there not at least a little recognition that she might just have a point?
I agree with Rozettes comments. If her point is that scrapbooking has become commercialized and is making scrapbooks (something that should be personal) impersonal, then that is what she should have said in the article. I agree whole-heartedly with that idea, but that is not the main point I got out of the article.
According to what I read in the article because I scrapbook I should be a fame seeking, overweight, stay-at-home mom with too much time on my hands, who likes to eat twinkies. You would think that a Yale professor would recognize stereotyping when she sees it.
Dori–the book seems like a very nice book, and one which scrapbookers would probably have flocked to (especially since it would have made a great Xmas gift for a scrapbooker!) but after what Helfand has said in her Salon interview (much less the article from 3 years ago) it is more likely that they will actively boycott the book.
And if Ms. Helfand is trying to do damage control NOW, it seems to me too little, too late. She said what she said, and it was pretty mean and uncalled for, and her biggest prospective market (the scrapbookers she disparaged so unnecessarily) is unlikely to listen to her now anyway.
Jessica, who exactly did you interview for your book? Not people like me. I scrapbook because I want my kids to have some type of memory of their childhood for when I’m not around. My grandmother died when my mom was 4. Not having any memory of her mother has been so traumatic for her. Should I be gone tomorrow, I want my kids to look back and see their life, my writing, little things they collected, whatever it takes to make a happy memory. Scrapbooking allows me to do this BEAUTIFULLY. And to think I’ve never even tried to be published. I guess I don’t fit into your stereotype of a scrapbooker trying to be on par with graphic artists.
Is scrapbooking commercial? Yes. How else would I find out about beautiful products to enhance my pages. Living in this day and age changes the media but not the intent of scrapbooking.
Leave us scrapbookers alone, please. We’re fine without your condescending tone. You cannot deny the tone no matter how much you try to now praise us.
And by the way: my scrapbooking group eats M&Ms and not Twinkies!
dear jessica, i agree that there *are* scrapbookers who use all premade embellishments as they sit in a group of friends and have twinkies while they scrap. and that is a change among those who created scrapbooks privately and with the memorabilia found around them. still, the twinkie crop is a legitimate way to scrapbook, since they are still putting down their photos and memories in a way that makes them happy. why do personal scrapbooks *have to be held* to any kind of design standard? scrapping is highly personal, isn’t it?
but this is just one facet of modern scrapping. if you think that is the only thing happening, let me introduce you to hundreds of women who are highly creative and make beautiful, meaningful pages. pages with great design and also great content. you seemed to have missed a big part of modern scrapping. it’s out there and doesn’t take much research to find it. please take me up on my offer — i truly want you to see some great work in this area.
juat wanted to chime in, as to why she might have drawn these conclusions and I am guilty to helping her.
I have two scrapbook lives.
Sometimes they interconnect.
the first is as a creative team member where I showcase other designers work and use different techniques from the program I use. I probably print 10% of these…I save them all via computer, but don’t put in an albumn to look at, but these are the ones in the limelight, posted to numerous sites gallerys. This is what the public sees.
The 2nd life is the deep journalling and personal scrapbooking….where the pictures tell a story and the journalling adds to it! These are 100% printed and put in an albumn where friends, families and visitors in our home enjoy! I rarely post these in the forums of public scrapbooking, because they are personnal and not “showcase” layouts.
I would love to read the book. I am saddened at the view towards “scrappers” but I understand where it comes from…step back a bit ladies…. at really how many little bows are in every single kit…lol
now I am off, twinkies to eat and beautiful kids to take pictures of, and where is that ribbon?
I did end up ordering this book, and I think all the puffery and “I am so offended” posturing is unfortunate–you are doing yourselves a disservice.
This is a GREAT book. It has a message for each of us “modern day scrapbookers.” Do you want your books to be the equivalent of the books of the Victorian era, filled with cutouts of colorful but ultimately meaningless scraps, or do you want your books to reflect something of you that will endure?
It’s up to you. No one is going to put a gun to your head and make you stop making pages full of embellishments you got for $3.99 plus a 5×7 photoshopped photo, oh and maybe a line of text if it doesn’t interfere with the art of it all. Go for it, if that’s your thing. The 1800s equivalent of those books are on Ebay
here http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-Victorian-Scrapbook-Album-Trade-Cards-Die-cuts_W0QQitemZ270319644254QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAntiquarian_Collectible?hash=item270319644254&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1308|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50
or here http://cgi.ebay.com/GREAT-C-1870-BOOK-OF-MOTHER-HUBBARD-STORY-DIECUT-LITHOS_W0QQitemZ390016936334QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAntiquarian_Collectible?hash=item390016936334&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A4|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A200
It’s a gorgeous book. It’s an interesting book. I’ve been interesting in journals and scrapbooks and handmade books almost my entire life and I absolutely loved the photos and also the author’s perspective.
What a shame this mob mentality, knee-jerk, bullying happened. You guys are really missing out.
Merry Christmas. I’m off to spend a few moments with my cool new book that gives a historical perspective to my favorite hobby.
Seanna-so sharing our opinions and feeling insulted by Ms. Helfand equals “mob-mentality” and “bullying”? Last time I checked in America (where I live) I am able to voice my opinion without being accused of being part of a mob. Perhaps in your country that’s what happens. Ms Helfand said what she said, and is now trying to back-pedal and say it was taken out of context…blah, blah, blah. It’s in black and white and it’s pretty clear to me. Personally I don’t need your approval, or anyone else’s as to how I scrapbook, photo-journal, or document my family’s history. If I want to be judged, I’ll enter a contest. I shudder to think of our VIctorian ancestors reaction to your scathing remarks about their “colorful, but meaningless scraps”. Art is art and needs no excuse or explanation. It invokes different feelings in everyone. If people created solely for the purpose of another’s opinion, nothing would ever be created. I think Ms. Helfand should have the integrity to stand by what she said without trying to deflect and make excuses, if not, maybe she should think before she speaks. Take responsibilty Ms. Helfand and learn from your mistakes.