That's pretty much the exact moment it all goes wrong.
I probably should mention I've never been to art school or design college or even drawn one of those mice out of the magazines that promise lessons by correspondence, but I do know a little about layout and design from reading up on the subject and spending 18 years in the home of an elementary school art teacher. Just enough knowledge to be dangerous, really. From this painfully limited amount of knowledge comes my understanding of the concept of white space. Although it seems counter intuitive (we'll get to that later) having a good deal of white space (or blank place) in your design is actually necessary in encouraging the viewer's eye to focus on the other part that isn't blank. The design part. White space is sort of a reverse eye magnet. It also works to frame the design, and makes the whole thing look clean and beautiful, not cluttered or busy. Logically I completely get it--white space is attractive and useful, and you'd think it would be simple to employ. Basically, you just have to leave a part of your page blank. I mean when you boil white space down to its most basic argument, what could be easier than not doing something?
Unfortunately when it comes to real life application, my brain gets a little fuzzy. I look at the page and I inexorably start throwing every element but the kitchen sink in there, because more is more is more, right? RIGHT? I let the wave of "extra pretties" wash over me like I've got some terrible addiction to 'one more brad, one more flower, one more sticker' and I only stop when I'm out of breath and the page is ruined.
Once I come down from the momentary high I step back and look at my well intentioned page now looking like a Hobby Lobby threw up on it and I think, "but my page is ugly. It doesn't look like the page in the picture. How can that be?" knowing full well it is because the lady who designed the original page didn't cover hers in $600 worth of ephemera.
The good news is since I'm leaning digitally right now, there's plenty of latitude in taking out the excess without having to completely start over. The bad news is, I'm me, and it take several efforts before I'm able to stop being me and control the crazy. The page below took three days to put together, and after eliminating half the original layers even I know it's still too full. The design I was attempting to copy mocks me with its vastly reduced clutter and conspicuous white space. That ever elusive white space. The holy white space grail. Someday I'll pull it off . . . maybe.Or probably I'll just start buying quick pages and have done with it!
Kristi
PS For those of you curious at home, there are nearly 40 layers in the CS2 version of this file. Somebody get me some help.
6 comments:
Get rid of the background paper! Instant white space. (Really!)
Take out those kids and Santa and it will be perfect
Okay, that made me laugh out loud. "There's yer problem lady, ya got a bunch of kids and a fat guy in a red suit in there."
I like it with all 40 layers! You could even do more suble background designs on the......
I love it! While the paper is kind of busy, it is not too busy. Don't feel like it has to all be plain paper!
You're boys are really cute!
I have a friend of mine who scrapbooks like you. She takes 3 days to do one page. Her scrapbooks are exquisite, and put mine to shame. I scrapbook the way I clean house..."Yep, that's good enough! Look I got 5 pages done in an hour & a half! Hide the rest of that stuff in the closet..." It'll never look professional, but then neither will my house.
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