Sunday, 10 June 2018

Max Louis Creative personalised prints review


Tomorrow is Madhouse Daddy's birthday. He would have been 47 and I'd have teased him about the fact that, for a couple of months at least, he was officially two years older than me. Next week is also Fathers' Day so, obviously, he is even more in our thoughts at the moment. When Max Louis Creative got in touch with news of their personalised prints, this sounded like the ideal tribute to him. They specialise in handmade prints that are made specifically to the gifter's requirements, so they are unique, completely personalised, special gifts for loved ones.


There are 3 different styles to choose from: personalised word photo, personalised oil effect print and personalised word wall.


I liked the idea of the personalised word photo, but the kids didn't want (and I quote) a picture that looked like someone had scribbled all over dad's face. Fair enough ! We opted for the personalised oil effect print and, after discussing with the kids, decided not to add any text at all - we could have put Dad or his name or any other short text of our choice.


This is the photo we decided to use - a family portrait from our holiday to Fethiye in Turkey last year. I put through the order, replied to the email giving a few precisions about what we wanted (you will be asked for details including the photo, font, colours and words) then sat back and wait for the postie. It's very straightforward and only took a couple of minutes. A few days later, a rigid cardboard tube was delivered with our print inside.


And here we are in oil effect.


From a distance, you can't really see the oil effect, so here is a close up of the background. You can see that it adds texture to the landscape so the waves and the bushes on the islands really stand out.


The downside to this is that it extends to faces too, so it makes skin tone look quite uneven and wrinkly, with visible swirls on some areas of skin.


This is particularly visible on Sophie's chin and forehead, for example. She made me laugh because she complained that she looked like one of the Identikit pictures where they have aged a kidnap victim by ten or fifteen years so you can imagine how they look now ! From a distance, it does look good though, so the knack is finding the perfect place to set it off where you won't be looking at it from too close up. For us, it's at pride of place at the top of the stairs, above eye level so you look up to it and your eyes don't zoom in on on the swirly effect. 


If you look back at the photo from their website, and look closely at the faces, you'll get another example of what I mean. It's all about finding the right photo for this effect - I think it would look fantastic with landscapes or a pet, but could be a bit hit and miss with portraits.

The prints are printed on high-quality paper in A2, A3 or A4 and, if you want one in time for Father's Day, you need to get your skates on because the last day to order a print in time for Father's Day is 12th June 2018. There is currently a 15% off discount code for Father's Day - FD2018 - which expires on 11th June 2018. (I've just noticed that it expires at midnight on 10th June in fact, so you've only got about an hour left to use the code !)


Disclosure : We received the product in order to write an honest review.

6 comments:

  1. It's a lovely idea. I don't like the 'scribble' one either!

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  2. I think this is a great idea for a fathers day gift

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  3. What a beautiful photo of you all, a great way to remember him, it is a shame you aren't 100% happy with the completed work and need to put it at the right angle not to see the stretched imperfection, although unless pointed out I wouldn't have noticed, we don't have any photos of the five of us, one of us always seems to be behind the camera but I really want to get one done ASAP, my fiance is 42 and suffered a severe heart attack in March, he is extremely lucky to be here now, it made me realise how precious life is xxx

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    1. We were on a jeep safari on holiday last year and the photographer took snaps all day long then came round trying to sell the CDs. We first said no, then I said oh why not? We haven't got many photos of all of us together. I'm really glad we did now :)

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  4. Beautiful family photo

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  5. What a beautiful way to embellish a photograph!

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