Pickapic.com

The idea of introducing a "web-to-print" platform for photo books and calendars in the Middle East and beyond was born when I received a photo book as a gift from a childhood friend on my 30th birthday. Being a bit of an Italian-German macho, I am not known to be very emotional. However, when I flipped through the book – full of pictures of my past, special moments with friends and family, and other important personal occasions – I almost had a tear running down my face. (Of course, I would never admit that to anyone in public!) My emotional outburst was triggered by the recollection of those precious memories, but even more touching was the fact that this friend had gone through a whole lot of trouble to create this special book. He gathered digital pictures from friends and family, but also scanned very old ones from my childhood that were hidden away in some old family albums.



I was not new to the concept of creating photo books through online software as this is a well established service around the globe. Nevertheless, when I had a closer look at the industry in the Middle East, it became clear that there are very limited possibilities for what one could do with pictures that are hidden away digitally on C: drives and external hard drives.

Revive your pictures and take them from pixel to print with Pickapic...



My wife was a frequent customer to a similar service in Germany. Whenever she created a book, she would have it shipped to her parents in Germany and would have to wait for their next visit to Dubai as almost none of the service providers deliver directly to the UAE (or the GCC, for that matter). The ones that do deliver, do so against horrific freight charges. This is where it became clear that pickapic needed to be brought to life in the Middle East. We see no reason why an easy and convenient picture book service should not be made available in the GCC and beyond, just because the big corporations have neglected to consider this market. I have decided to call the service pickapic (a service of Fresh Media FZ-LLC) as the free, easy-to-use software allows you to simply pick a picture and drag it into placeholders and templates to easily create your unique book.



So here we are, after a lot of work and dedication from the pickapic team, and help from many friends (some are shown in the beautiful picture above), hoping that we can share our passion for pictures and the things that can be done to preserve and cherish them for a lifetime. Free them from their digital prison and turn them into something tangible that can be shared with your loved ones. One day when you sit on your sofa with your grandchildren on your lap, reminiscing about your life, you will want to show them proof of your stories ("the fish was thiiis big"). Personally, I don’t see myself taking them through a slideshow on a laptop... do you?