37 Unique Photo Book Ideas, Examples & Inspiration

All photo books are inspired by the same simple concept: Compiling your favorite photos into a beautiful book that you can hold in your hands and treasure for a lifetime. Within this concept, though, are countless unique photo book ideas that reflect your own creativity, personal style, and extraordinary life.

Every photo book created on Mixbook is special, but we have some great suggestions for unique photo book ideas to get you started on your own incomparable creation.

Unique book ideas featuring your family

Favorite pictures of family and friends are always prime material for a photo book. Seeing the smiling faces of those nearest and dearest to you, along with the captured memories you shared together, will always put a smile on your face. Here are some great photo book ideas focusing on family.

Family history book

Every family is unique, so a family history photo book will always be a one-of-a-kind treasure. You might take the approach of using genealogy charts and data and turning them into a visual family tree. Or celebrate your family heritage through a photo book with a historical or cultural theme. Remember, you don’t have to look to ancient family history. You can start your own history with just your immediate family.

Related: How to make a family history book

2. Maternity photo book

You have your child’s entire lifetime to capture on camera, but just nine memorable months of pregnancy. Preserve the memories of those precious, exciting, emotional, and overwhelming times with a maternity photo book. Plan a maternity photo shoot for special photos, but also include every stage of a pregnancy along with ultrasound shots, getting the nursery ready, baby shower pictures, and written messages of love to your unborn child.

3. Grandparents and grandkids book

Memories of time spent with grandparents are often the happiest of all. Grandparents and grandkids alike — and other family members — will love to see all those shared memories captured on camera and transformed into a beautiful book.

4. Aunt or uncle and niblings book

Just like grandparents and grandkids, the relationships between aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews are often treasured. Make a gift book for your kids’ aunts and uncles or make one for yourself featuring your own beloved niblings.

5. Family reunion photo book

Whether it’s an unforgettable one-off event or an ongoing tradition, a family reunion is the perfect opportunity to take tons of photos of all your extended family members. Capture every generation, every reunion experience, and all the memories you share in a special family reunion photo book. You could print copies for every family member as amazing gifts.

6. Memories with your pet

Curling up with a book packed with pet memories is a great way to celebrate your four-legged family members. Choose silly candid shots, photos where your pets are posed to perfection, or fun family photos that depict great times you've shared. Maybe go the extra mile with a pet costume and photo shoot!

Check out a few other fun pet photo book ideas for even more inspiration.

7. Pet perspectives photo book

Create an adorable pet photo book featuring thoughts and perspectives from your pet. Add cute and hilarious quotes to match your favorite photos. Use thought bubble and speech bubble sticker graphics to bring your pet’s loving personality and cheeky antics to life.

Unique baby and kid photo books

Babies and kids tend to be the most photographed members of the family, so why not turn that extensive, adorable photo collection into a unique photo book?

8. Baby’s first year photo book

Nothing in life can prepare you for the first year as a new parent. Capture all those firsts in a new take on a timeless photo album. No matter how sleep-deprived you are, you’ll never forget a precious moment when you look through a first-year baby photo book. See your baby smiling, crawling, and walking, and all those adorable everyday moments. You can even scan your baby’s hospital bracelet, first footprints, and other precious keepsakes.

9. Adoption book

Document your child's adoption in a personalized book dedicated to your little one's journey. It’s a wonderful way to communicate how precious your child is to you and the unique way you all came together as a family. Include information that you'll share over the years, such as messages about how you knew it was time to grow your family and how you felt when you brought your child home. And of course, include lots and lots of photos capturing those precious memories.

Related: How to create an adoption photo book your family will treasure forever

10. Kids’ extracurriculars book

Some of the most precious moments of childhood come from extracurriculars like sports, dance, summer camps, Scouting, theater, and music. You’ve probably captured a lot of these times on camera. Create a photo book featuring your kids as they enjoy the journey of life from one activity to the next. It could be a book dedicated to your kid’s Little League adventures or their efforts to try out every activity there is before finding one that fits.

11. Write your own children's storybook

If you have an idea for a story, turn it into a real-life children's bedtime storybook on Mixbook. The editor tool allows for totally custom text, images, backgrounds, and stickers, so you can create visual effects to suit your story. Choose a storybook theme as a guide for those visuals, or work entirely from scratch. How about a children's book about your family pet? Or an ABC book themed around your child, your family, your hometown, or your kid’s current obsession?

12. Kid's first art portfolio

Creative kids will be thrilled to get a book of their own artwork. Take photos of all their best works of art, and either make the book a surprise or collaborate on a special portfolio of their own favorites. As a bonus for parents, you won't need to store all the paper originals anymore! A book of your child’s artwork will be even more special than a box full of art that you rarely look through. (Tip: These make great gifts for grandparents.)

13. Kids’ sports team book

Yearbooks aren’t just for school milestones. Create a commemorative sports team book for Little League, peewee football, softball, or any other sports team (big or small!) with a yearbook theme. You and your favorite player will love looking back at a successful season.

Unique photo book ideas for yourself

You might be the designated photo book maker for your family, but don’t forget to use those skills to celebrate yourself as well. Looking through your own photo collection is often a very personal experience, so it can be rewarding to create a personal photo book just for your own enjoyment. Here are some ideas.

14. Year-in-review photo book

Wrap up the year with a year-in-review photo book that highlights your most memorable events. Perhaps your family grew, you took the vacation of a lifetime, or you simply enjoyed the company of your family and friends. This is a unique photo book idea because there’s never been another year in your life just like it!

Related: Year in Review Theme Ideas for Annual Photo Books

15. Gratitude book

Gratitude is a tremendously powerful emotion, proven to be beneficial for mental health in so many ways. Take some time to list all the things, big and small, profound or mundane, that you’re grateful for in your life. Match these ideas with photos and phrases, and put them together as a unique photo book idea. It’s like a visual gratitude journal, and it will give you great pleasure to look through during happy times as well as tough times.

16. Hobby book

You don’t have to be a professional in a creative field to put together a portfolio photo book. Hobbies are worth celebrating as well! Whether it’s knitting, gardening, carpentry, playing a musical instrument, dancing, or any other hobby you can imagine, use it as inspiration for unique photo book ideas. Put together a hobby photo book for yourself to remember all your proudest projects and accomplishments.

17. Social media roundup

All your best photos and memories of recent years up on social media? If you’re social media savvy, you probably picked up some great TikTok photography tips and have the pro shots to prove it. Don’t forget to transfer some of those fabulous photos off the small phone screen and into the real world. A photo book is a great way to do that, and you can even maintain your unique aesthetic with a mobile-friendly theme.

19. Religious photo book

If religion or spirituality is an important part of your life, celebrate it with a collection of beautiful photos and religious quotes and verses. A religious photo book could document your role in a congregation or other spiritual community, milestones and holidays associated with your religion, or a curated collection of images, words, and mementos that are sacred to you.

Milestone and special occasion photo book ideas

Photos taken around special events and major life milestones like weddings and graduations are among the most joyful of all. When you decide these occasions and milestones deserve their own dedicated photo book, consider some of the following ideas.

19. Milestone birthday gift book

Celebrating a big birthday, whether it's a loved one's or your own, is one of the most popular reasons to create a photo gift book. You can choose an everyday photo book to start with a theme, or build your own from scratch. For more birthday photo book ideas, check out some birthday inspiration.

20. Unique anniversary album

Creating an anniversary album, whether it’s for the first or 50th year, is a wonderful way to reflect on the experiences that make couples stronger. You can simply compile the best photos from all the years of your relationship. Or, consider a unique photo book idea such as best date nights or couples’ trips, a book with spreads dedicated each year of your marriage, or 10 reasons why I love you. Remember to include scanned mementos such as handwritten love notes, postcards, and little gifts to each other, along with happy anniversary messages.

21. Groomsman or bridesmaid gift

Looking to get a unique gift for your wedding party? Give them a custom photo book gift. There are many ways to make it unique and special, from sharing happy memories to recipe books. If you have lots of fun photos from a bachelor or bachelorette party, those are clear winners for gift photo books for your besties.

22. Unique wedding guest book

Wedding guest books filled with photos of the happy couple make excellent mementos. Include romantic engagement photos, candids, and other shots of the perfect pair. Wedding guests can enjoy flipping through the book and get inspiration for their own messages when they sign in.

23. Proposal book

Celebrate a monumental decision with a custom proposal book. Whether your spouse-to-be was anticipating you popping the question or it was a complete surprise, the photos will be treasured forever. A proposal book is also good practice before you need to look at save-the-date cards, guest books, wedding books, anniversary books, and more.

24. Retirement book

Retiring at the end of a long, eventful career is a really big deal! Make a photo book commemorating a career as a thoughtful retirement gift. Include photos, text, and other mementos capturing the big career milestones as well as snapshots of day-to-day work life.

25. Baptism photo book

A baptism celebration brings together so many important family members in one place, so it’s a lovely time to snap lots of pictures. Make a baptism photo book featuring family group shots and closeups of the baby or person being baptized. Consider adding a sweet prayer or bible verse at the end of the book.

26. Bar or Bat Mitzvah photo book

As an important coming-of-age milestone and major religious event, a Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah is a wonderful subject for a photo book. Combine photos of the ceremony and celebrations in a beautiful book full of memories that your family will treasure forever.

Unique travel photo book ideas

Travel photos are always treasures, featuring stunning scenery shots, memorable activities, and the smiling faces of you and your loved ones in vacation mode. Travel photo books are also really enjoyable to create. Take inspiration from some of these ideas.

27. Weekend getaway photo book

If you come home from a weekend getaway with hundreds of new photos to sort through, why not turn them into a travel photo book? Create the book as soon as you come home, while the memories are still fresh. Choose a theme that matches your destination, or start from scratch, and add little notes about what you saw, how it felt, and what you experienced along the way.

For amazing group vacations, create a travel photo book of memories for each family to enjoy.

28. Staycation photo book

Exploring your home town, city, region, or state, can be as enriching as any far-flung travels. When you’ve spent some time adventuring closer to home, create a special photo book to showcase the memories. How about an artsy black-and-white book dedicated to your city’s architectural gems, or an everyday adventures book capturing the beauty of your local area?

29. Lifetime travels book

Do you live to travel? Instead of creating a photo book around one vacation, consider a comprehensive book showcasing the travel highlights of a lifetime. Whether you’ve ventured all over the world, thoroughly explored your home country, or are just getting started at satisfying that wanderlust, a “lifetime travels” book is the perfect project.

Food and recipe photo book ideas

Food is closely tied to memories, which makes recipe books an excellent and unique photo book idea.

30. Favorite family recipes

Favorite family recipes, gathered from all the best cooks in the family, make great gifts for family and friends. They also preserve your family’s culinary heritage. Consider dividing the book into chapters for each family member’s contributions. The project requires photos, of course, so gather the family for an epic cooking session and photo shoot!

31. Your own recipe book

Perhaps you’re an excellent cook and always dreamed of publishing your own recipe book — go for it! Be sure to include beautiful photos of food to go with those recipes. Think about how you want to organize your recipes: by breakfast, lunch, and dinner; by type of cuisine; or maybe by season.

32. Recipe books with a theme

There are so many ways to personalize your recipe book. For a unique photo book idea, narrow down your theme. Examples include your famous holiday cookie collection; Mom’s weird (but good) dinner ideas; party punch and holiday cocktails; and Friendsgiving feast recipes.

Business photo book ideas

A high-quality, beautifully designed photo book is an excellent showpiece for your business. It can help you show and explain your work to potential clients and generate more business, and also serve as a point of pride for you and any employees.

33. Professional business book

For the owner of any type of business, big or small, it takes considerable time and effort to create a cohesive brand image. Making a professional photo book is an effective way to market a business in line with that image. Mixbook has a wide range of professional photo book themes, and you can fully customize a photo book by making your own stickers and backgrounds as well.

34. Creative portfolio

If you work in a creative field — for example as an artist, designer, stylist, or marketer — create a portfolio photo book as a professional tool. This is an invaluable showcase of your best work that you can show to prospective clients or anyone else who is interested in your talents. Follow our advice for putting together a portfolio that shines.

More unique photo book ideas

Sometimes you need an idea for a photo book that’s totally original and personal to you. How about some of these suggestions?

35. 2020 “safer-at-home” memory book

The COVID-19 pandemic and many months of “safer at home” orders dominate memories of 2020 and beyond. Photos of socially distanced days out, work-from-home life, reunions with family members, and the milestones that didn’t stop are all worthy of a memory photo book. These books will be a handy tool to talk about the era with future generations as well as kids who were too young to remember it all.

36. Seasonal photo book

All four seasons make great themes for unique photo book ideas. Did you have a fabulous summer with the kids? It could have been a memorable summer camp for them, or just lots of family time filled with swimming, beach days, park outings, and picnics. Turn it into a summer-themed book. Maybe winter brought epic, once-in-a-lifetime snowfall to your town. Gather all those snowman, snowball, bundled-up, hot chocolate, and fireplace photos, and make a book.

37. Sports fan photo book

Whether you’re screaming from the stands, partying in the parking lot, or surfing the concert crowds, a sports fan photo book captures all your best super fan memories in one place. Scan your ticket stubs and championship parade route confetti for a few more irreplaceably unique fan photo book ideas.

What’s your unique photo book idea?

There are no limits on unique photo book ideas that can come from your imagination and onto the printed page using Mixbook. What unique photo book will you create in the Mixbook Studio™? Share your ideas on social using #mymixbookstory or email social@mixbook.com.