Layout Fix #2: Element Placement

I was going to talk a little more about Catherine's layout from last week, but she made such a nice redo herself, I thought we could let it rest.

As soon as I saw this layout from Tiffany I was intrigued. She is clearly a girl after my own heart following the desire to put as many elements on a page as is possible (or in this case perhaps a bit beyond possible :) ).

I feel like immediately upon looking at this, anyone would give the advice to take away lots of the elements, it's just too cluttered. But Tiffany is too smart for us, and already tried that.

There is less clutter on the page, but it's still missing whatever magic that makes a layout feel finished. So I decided to challenge myself to figure out how to use ALL the elements on one layout.

It turns out the answer to this challenge is not difficult, in theory (execution of course, is a different thing). It's even a current scrapping trend, although it's such a basic design principle that I'm not sure it can be considered trendy. I'm talking about clustering.

Of course when you say clustering in the scrapbooking world, it brings up images of what I've done here. Layouts covered in intricately layered elements. This may not be your cup of tea, but the basic idea of clustering is what elevates a page of stuff to a designed layout. It's the art of grouping that's going to bring flow and interest to the page. Without it, it's just going to be a bunch of stuff.

I'm not sure that I've done justice to this idea in the layout, it still feels a bit cluttered, but I think even with my undeveloped clustering skills the importance of placement has been illustrated.

Making groups isn't the end of the story. In order to get that "finished magic" you need to look at what the groups are doing. In her original layout, Tiffany has several very nice clusters. However, they're placed around the page without a sense of flow. There's no clear place to start looking, and no way to know to stop looking. Did I see everything? I don't know. When placing things on the page you want to think about where you want people to look and how they'll get there.

And don't forget that breathing space (white space) is always important, even in a layout that's going for a cluttered, collage feel. The white space works with the clusters to guide your eye along.

What do you think? How did I do?

If you have a layout you'd like me to "fix" please email it to [email protected]. You'll likely need to zip the file and use a file sharing service (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc) to share such a large file. I will reply to your email to let you know I've received it. If you haven't heard from me after a day or two, try sending it again.