Uneven number of elements and mirror image?

[ayaandjudah]

In the Rebecca teaching a class thread Rebecca mentioned that she sticks to the rule of thirds, uneven number of elements and mirror imaging.

I know the rule of thirds but was wondering if anyone could explain the other two or provide links to articles about it.

Always looking to improve.....

[ColleenSwerb]

The uneven number of elements, is basically that an odd number of elements is more pleasing to the eye. So instead of doing 4 clusters on your page, try and do either 3 or 5.
You can also add another layer to this by placing the clusters/elements so that they make a triangle on the page. It doesn't have to be an equilateral triangle or anything exact like that, but the triangle shape gives movement to the page and makes the eye move around. You can also apply those principles to colors on the page, and not just elements. If you have 2 red flowers on the page, try placing a piece of red paper, or making your title red, and all in a triangle sort of shape.

[MissKim]

I'll suggest Cathy Zielske's About Design series if you really want to learn about the principles of design (and her Design Your Life class at Big Picture is amazing). Here's a link to the .pdf's on her blog: about design

[MamaBee]

Yup - what Col said...

here is an article I found on the odd numbers... it's something I carried over from my years of watching HGTV... LOL!

http://scrapbooking.about.com/od/get...ruleofodds.htm

Here is an article on using the triangle... which I think as mirroring, I know that it's not the right term... sometimes it's just taking the same cluster on the other side of the photo...
http://scrapbooking.about.com/od/get...altriangle.htm

Edit - I second Kim's suggestion on taking Cathy's class... awesome class!!

[ayaandjudah]

Is there a link to her class? I goggled it but I have computer issues at work and it aborted the search

[MissKim]

Here's the class link: Design Your Life

It's expensive but you get a ton of her templates and she explains all the visual triangle, balance, and all the design principle stuff.

[ayaandjudah]

thanks so much for all your help!

[SirScrapalot]

Big Picture is always having new classes come out that cover design techniques like that...I sign up for their emails so you don't miss anything.

[Lukasmummy]

There's a free class that might help you with this here you just need to sign up on the right hand side and you receive the prompts via email the site is really interesting and there are some great articles. Hugs Crystal xx

[heathergw]

I took CathyZ's Design Your Life class back before it was self-paced and more expensive lol... it was AWESOME and totally worth it!!! She's very clean and simple with her designs but I was able to transfer all I learned in her class to be used with paper layers and clustering. It's a really well rounded class... I had a lot of eye opening moments in that course.

[ayaandjudah]

heather, what do the templates look like? it's a lot of money.....

[Nettio]

Her templates are SUPER simple, like a few photo blocks and some text. That's the style she's known for though - a clean and simple style. She sells over at Designer Digitals if you want an idea of her style.

[MissKim]

Actually, I think most of the templates are in her store at Designer Digitals. Just search for Design Your Life.

[SirScrapalot]

Just bumping this to say you may want to check out BPC...there may be something there now that wasn't before...

[krystalhartley]

Originally Posted by SirScrapalot

Just bumping this to say you may want to check out BPC...there may be something there now that wasn't before...

How exciting! Hope it's a fun, successful venture for you!

[nun69]

wow..I didn't even realize some of our very own SSD peeps were over there

[ayaandjudah]

Originally Posted by SirScrapalot

Just bumping this to say you may want to check out BPC...there may be something there now that wasn't before...

I just bought it. Am I your first classmember? Do I get a prize for that?

[SirScrapalot]

I actually don't know...I don't get the list of who is part of the project. I hope you find it useful though.

[ayaandjudah]

Originally Posted by SirScrapalot

I actually don't know...I don't get the list of who is part of the project. I hope you find it useful though.

Thanks, I did find it interesting and I imagine very helpful. I just read both handouts but haven't been able to scrap yet. But even just seeing someone explain all the ideas and how to apply them was very helpful.

And the gorgeous kit by Meg was a nice bonus. :-)

Any other classes I need to take?

[Kenzi]

off to sign up and see for myself. Aaron you always have such gorgeous LOs! So I'm sure the class will be equally as awesome

[heathergw]

Originally Posted by ayaandjudah

Any other classes I need to take?

I've taken Design Your Life and really learned a lot of layout design principles... and I also really like Peppermint's shadowing class.

Aaron, I saw your announcement yesterday... how exciting to see you teaching at BPC.