Design Tips: Visual Triangles

Visual triangles are one of the easiest design tips to learn and use.

Our brains perceive images in familiar shapes. By placing items on our scrapbook pages in a triangle, it allows our eyes to see the page as a whole rather than being distracted by one or two pieces on the page.

It also gives the eye a natural path on which to travel around the layout so that the viewer can take in all the elements one by one. The visual triangle comes from the idea that the eye responds far better to designs including odd numbers of features rather than even numbers – placing just two of any embellishment or photo tends to leave the eye flitting back and forth between the two rather while missing other less dominant elements on the page.

The examples I've show here use a visual triangle with embellishments (except the top that uses large circle cut out frames), but you can create visual triangles with colours, photos or even text such as your title, date, and journaling. 
You can very the size of the elements used in you triangle, they just need to be similar enough for the eye to recognize that they relate.
Don't be afraid to make more than one visual triangle on your page, as repetition is another eye-pleasing design element.

Breaking down the page: Ninth Birthday

This a bit of an older page, but I love it and can't remember if I shared it here yet or not. It was in Canadian Scrapbooker last summer.

What works:
-good use of anchoring. Separate elements on the page are linked together in a way that moves the eye across the page.

-title placement. The title stands out due to placement and contrast (font shape, colour and size).

-colour pallette. The colour choices on the page were pretty much a no-brainer since the base paper had a beautiful watercolour design (Amy Tangerine's Sketchbook line).

What doesn't work:
- the journaling. I always regret not journaling in black pen. I remember reading Heidi Swapp's "Love Your Handwriting" years ago and she always uses black pen to journal. It helps the journaling standout and not blend in with the other page elements.

-it's a little busy. In retrospect I would have made the embellishment cluster a little smaller. It looks a bit overwhelming and crowded with the journaling. (I never plan my journaling out in advance...bad habit).

Have a crafty weekend!



Breaking down the page is a new feature on my blog designed to help you improve your scrapbooking. Read more about and other blogging categories here: Blog manifesto