Design Basics: Focal Point
By Lydia Rueger
If you've looked through any number of scrapbook idea books or magazines, you can probably enviously rattle off a few names of scrapbook artists whose pages always grab your attention. Your pages are decent, but you've asked yourself, "What do their pages have that mine don't have?" The answer could be as simple as focus.
Professional artists and designers have always known that adding a dominant or "wow" element will draw attention to their work or will help convey their message. That element may be larger or brighter, or it may carry more weight than the other items in the design. Whatever the method, this creates a focal point.
Scrapbook pages are no different than other designs. They need that same kind of "wow" element to draw in the reader's eye.
Picking A Focus
So, how do you choose what to focus on? "Decide what is most important and what needs to be emphasized," advises Janet Tackett, graphic design chair at the Colorado Institute of Art. Ask yourself what you want your design to say and what elements best illustrate that theme.
Because our memories are central in our scrapbooks, look at your photos and memorabilia first to try to create a focal point. If you have a perfect vacation photo of the family having fun in the mountains, enlarge it to serve as your dominant image.
Creating Focus
Constructing a focal point basically consists of pulling out a dominant element on your page or spread. Think about elements that designers use to attract attention, such as color, texture, space, size, direction and shape. Now think of your scrapbook supplies and skills. How can you apply those to create a focal point? Whether you use an enlarged photo or bold patterned paper, the possibilities are endless.
Photos
- Enlarge a clear, good quality photo. As a general rule, vary the size and shape of your other photographs.
- Mount a photo with multiple mats in colors that complements those in the photo, or make a uniquely shaped mat.
- Create a small collage of photos.
- Tilt a photo on an unusual angle.
- Use a black-and-white photo within a colorful design, or vice versa.
Text and Titles
Sometimes a story may be stronger than the photos that represent it. Spotlight journaling or page titles with the following ideas.
- Use dark, bold lettering for your page title and a light color for other journaling.
- Try an unusual computer font or color for an important bit of journaling.
- Create a white title inside a black box.
- Journal inside a unique shape or in an unusual pattern.
Illustrations and Decorative Elements
Often decorative elements are the most work, so it is natural to want to make them the focus of your page. Be careful, however, not to let the decorations overpower your memories. Instead, work with decorative elements to help them draw more attention to your photos and journaling.
Your focal point is a foundation for the rest of your page. Once you have created a focus, you can build the rest of the page elements on the page or spread.
To see how designers create focal point, pay attention to art, magazines and advertisements. For a simple guide to basic design as it relates to scrapbookers, check out Core Composition, a publication of Apple of Your Eye, by Stacy Julian and Terina Darcey. |
