"...the essence of creating harmony in a design consists of balancing unity and variety."1
Nobody wants to create boring layouts. What would be the point of spending time, money, and effort on a scrapbook that you didn't want to look at? By the same token, a layout that is too chaotic and jumbled can be a real effort to look through. It's wise to strike a compromise, to make layouts that have a pleasing balance. Often, this is achieved using the design element of symmetry.
A symmetrical image is one that mirrors itself along a middle axis. If you took your layout and drew a line down the middle (either horizontal or vertical), you would create two halves which, if they created a mirrored image, would demonstrate the principle of symmetry.
Symmetry is a useful concept in creating balance in your layouts. It ensures that they do not feel lopsided or off-kilter. You just need to make sure that you don't over-use symmetry in your layouts, or they will become boring. To prevent this from happening, try taking a design that is otherwise symmetrical, but shift it a little to one side, or to the top or bottom. Thus you still have the sense of order and balance, but your eyes are a little more visually stimulated.
(This is page 2 of the Romp layout from this week's Tips/Tools/Techniques lesson.)
It is still possible to create a pleasing, well-executed, well-balanced layout without the use of symmetry, however. Just keep in mind two things:
There's really no set of guidelines that will tell you everything you need to know to achieve balance on your layouts - the variations that can appear on any given layout are just too numerous. Over time, as you look at more and more layouts, you will simply develop an "eye" for balance. That is why it's a good idea to move your page elements around into a variety of positions before you glue them down, to see which is most pleasing to your eye.
In the absence of a complete set of principles, I bring you examples! Some layouts that worked, and some that worked... not so well.
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A well-balanced layout. Draw an imaginary line down the middle, and you see that each half has a photo of about the same size. One photo was taken at closer range, so it has more weight. To balance it, on the other side is a poem of greater length. The journaling and strip of beads helps to fill the white space, and to add overall balance. The repetition of the black brads and banana leaf paper on both sides of the layout further add to the sense of order. |
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A poorly-balanced layout. The paper-pieced Shrek figure in the lower-left-hand corner of the layout is far larger than the photo's subject, leaving the page out of balance. The picture should be the star of the show, but it is being crowded out (quite literally) by the embellishment. |
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Visual triangles are a great design technique to use in achieving order on your pages. In this layout, the three photos are arranged so that they form one visual triangle. The two parts of the title, along with the journaling, form another visual triangle. This adds flow to a page, and makes the overall layout appear balanced. |
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So balanced, it's boring. This page could use a spark. Its only real saving grace is the repetition of elements - the flowers. |
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The larger photo and journaling on the left are nicely offset by the three smaller close-ups on the right. The smaller pictures are set at an angle, which helps to break up the "block" monotony of the page and give it a bit of a fun feeling. The repetition of the blocks (in the patterned paper, the mats, and the photos' shapes) helps give an overall unified feeling. |
1-"Unified Scrapbook Design" by Kari Hansen-Daffin, Memory Makers Magazine, March/April 2004, p. 46.
Scan through a few layouts in scrapbooking magazines. Evaluate their use of balance and symmetry. Chronicle six layouts in the journal you started last week - three that you feel "work", and three that don't. Jot down your impressions. For those that don't work, describe how you might change them to make them better.
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