By Camille Sperrazza
Throughout the year there are countless birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, engagements, weddings, and special occasions to remember friends and family. There’s an array of parties to which we receive invitations, and proper protocol requires that we bring gifts. It’s not that we mind, of course, it’s just that we often find ourselves asking: What gift should I buy? Clothes can be a difficult choice as most people like to try them on before purchasing. Household appliances that we love may just be clutter on someone else’s counter. Gift certificates? Well, they might work, but they can be so impersonal. Digity Pix Publishing Inc. (285 9th Street, 718-768-0090) provides a unique option for gift-giving that recipients will love — a one-of-a-kind hard-cover coffee table book, made from photographs. A personalized gift of this nature will be a treasured keepsake for a lifetime. The shop’s owner, Melissa Nettles, says so far, “Every customer has been ecstatically happy with their books.” She notes that one client ordered 10 of these personalized books this past holiday season — one for every person on her gift list. She phoned Nettles recently to say it was “the hit” of the holiday. “I had no idea how excited everyone would be,” she told Nettles. “It was everybody’s favorite present.” Creating this personalized book for you or someone you know is easy. Simply download the photos you’d like to include, or bring them in on a CD. Nettles says you can even bring in your digital camera that contains the photos. Next, pick out your cover, the style, and a theme. Nettles will lay out the photos and bind them into your own unique, hardcover book. When complete, you’ll have a book of 15-20 two-sided pages, that accommodates about 100 photos. You may wish to include a dedication page and perhaps a second page with a poem or other lovely thoughts. These pages, too, are included, with the set price. Nettles says many people are creating baby books that highlight baby’s first six months. Then, they’ll come in and create a book about the second six months. People are also creating books that focus on cities they’ve visited, and trips to various places around the globe. Some simply like to create books that record their lives, creating new ones, as events unfold. Teen books and wedding books are also popular. It sure is a lot nicer than sticking photographs in a drawer or keeping them on CD’s that may be forgotten about. Another gift idea at Digity Pix is the personalized DVD that contains digital photos set to music. It’s a virtual “slide show” of a person’s life or a special occasion. It can be a keepsake as well as a unique way to set the tone of a party. Digity Pix also sells accessories such as picture frames, book lights, and “pretty magnifying glasses on necklaces for those times when you forget your glasses,” says Nettles. Like many business ideas, Nettles’ created this service because she saw the need, and she had the experience. She owned her own advertising agency in Manhattan for about 12 years, and did a lot of computer work. She decided to sell the business in 1999, and took some time to travel. Wanting to put together photo albums of the places she visited, she found herself on the Internet, creating books with the technology that was available. But, she found that the results of this endeavor were lacking. With all her experience, it took a tremendous amount of time to create an album. And worse, she wasn’t happy with the finished product. She thought: Why not create something better, using her own expertise? Digity Pix Publishing Inc. was born. Visit the shop Tuesdays through Saturdays, from 11 a.m. until 6:30 p.m., to create personalized gifts people will treasure forever.
