Beautiful Architecture

Chapter 4. Making Memories

Michael Nygard

	Principles and properties		Structures
	Versatility	✓	Module
✓	Conceptual integrity	✓	Dependency
✓	Independently changeable		Process
✓	Automatic propagation		Data access
✓	Buildability
	Growth accommodation
	Entropy resistance

Since the earliest tintypes and daguerreotypes, we have always seen photographs as special, sometimes even magical. A photograph captures a fleeting moment in time, in a way that our fallible memories cannot. But the best portraits do more than just preserve a moment; they illuminate it. They catch a certain glance or expression, a characteristic pose that lets the subject’s personality shine through.

If you’ve had children in a U.S. school, you probably already know the name Lifetouch. Lifetouch photographs most elementary school, middle school, and high school students in the United States every single year. What you may not know is that Lifetouch also runs high-quality portrait studios. Lifetouch Portrait Studios (LPS) operates in major retail stores across the country, along with the “Flash!” chain of studios in shopping malls. In these studios, LPS’s photographers take portraits that last a lifetime.

Digital photography has transformed the entire photography industry, and LPS is no exception. Giant rolls of film and frame-mounted cameras are disappearing, replaced with professional-grade DSLRs and flash memory cards. Unfettered photographers can move around, try different angles, and get closer than ever to their subjects. In ...