Have you ever wondered how professional scrapbookers manage to create those amazing layouts, that look just perfect? Many of them come from background in Graphic Design or Arts and they seem to have a “gift” of creating compositions that just work.
Well, let me tell you one little secret: it’s not just a “gift” — although that plays a big part in the whole process, and while some people have an eye for composition, it is not a requirement to create beautiful, professional layouts.
When creating a scrapbook layout, there are many “recipes” available to help you create a beautiful, balanced page. These often come in the form of layout “rules”, also used in graphic design, to aid you during composition. They are also know as “Gestalt Principles”.
Unless you have been to design school, chances are you have never heard of Gestalt. but don’t be frightened just yet! It’s not as scary as it seems.
Gestalt “refers to the form-forming capability of our senses, particularly with respect to the visual recognition of figures and whole forms instead of just a collection of simple lines and curves” (Wikipedia).
How Does Gestalt Relate To Scrapbooking?
Basically, it’s about how our brain interprets visual elements. In a nutshell, Gestalt Principles consist of the following: similarity, continuation, closure, proximity and figure & ground.
But how do these relate to scrapbooking? Oh, I’m getting there. Below you can find a brief explanation of each principle as well as some examples of how you can effectively apply Gestalt to scrapbooking to make better layouts:
Similarity
Objects that look alike are perceived as related or as part of a group.
Similarity can be achieved through repetition of color, size, orientation, texture, font, shape, etc. When repeating any of these elements on a page, we can design elements appear more related. Think about that when using embelishments such as ribbons, buttons and beads.
You can see that in effect on this unusual layout by Jeremy. Note how we immediately distinguish between two separate groups: the buttons and the journaling.
Continuation
It happens when the eye is compelled to move through one object and continue to another object. Also, elements arranged on a line or curve are perceived to be more related than elements not on the line or curve.
You can use lines of all sorts to guide the eye to the most important parts of your layouts. These can be drawn or stitched directly to your page, or can be perceived as several similar items in a row (like buttons, eyelets or beads).
Note on this layout by Anna-Maria how she makes use of lines to draw attention to the picture on the right side. It seems you can’t help but to focus on it.
Closure
Even when a shape is not complete, our brain can perceive an object and complete the shape on its own by filling the missing information.
This is particularly useful for those using stamps. Specially when the stamps start to get a little old and worn out and you can’t quote get the ink to cover the whole shape. Just by leaving something “missing” you can create a nice effect and let your brain complete the images.
On this example by Latarnia, you can’t quite see the whole image of the leaves on the upper right, but you know exactly what they are because your brain perceives the shapes despite the missing pieces.
Proximity
Elements arranged close together are perceived as related to each other or as part of a group.
The perfect example would be using several photos close together to show a sequence of events. When the pictures are put close to each other, we immediately realize there’s a connection between them. This is a great way to show action and time related events, like on this gorgeous page by Ula.
Figure and Ground
Elements can be perceived as either a figure (element of focus) or ground (background on which the figure sits). This means we can recognize either a positive image or a negative image (think cut-outs).
This is specially useful when designing with die cuts. If you use your Cricut (or some other scrapbooking machine, or even paper punchers) to create scrapbooking die cuts, you can either use the positive part (die cut itself) or the negative part (the paper with the shape missing from it). Our brain will perceive the images either way.
Take a look at the layout below, by Courtney. See how she uses both positive and negative shapes to create her titles? It adds interest to the composition AND saves paper.
Intrigued? This is just scratching the surface. There’s a lot more to it. If you are interested in learning more about Gestalt, check out this page and this page for more information and examples.
It’s important to remember that Gestalt principles are tools, not rules. They can aid you to create better compositions, but don’t get stuck to them. Use these guidelines as a reference, but feel free to break the rules whenever you want. This is where the fun lies anyway!
