Welcome to Week 7 in our Design Principles Readers Challenge. Each week we’ll be posting information about a different design concept, together with sketches from Becky Fleck at Pagemaps, and our design team, that work to demonstrate the concept. We’d love you to join in by creating your own layouts, either using any one of Becky’s sketches OR creating your own design that showcases that week’s design principle. This week we are looking at the Z theory.
Please EMAIL your pages or cards to us by next Tuesday 3rd July to appear in our Readers Challenge blog post.
Please try and use products supplied by Aussie Scrap Source brands (you’re quite spoiled for choice there!).
Our favourite layout each week (as voted for by our design team) will win a prize pack of Aussie Scrap Source goodies!
WEEK 7: Flow – the Z Theory
When we design a page, ultimately we want to be able to control where the viewers eye lands, and where it travels. The premise of the Z theory is a simple one and is based on the theory that western cultures read from left to right. If you overlay your page with an imaginary Z, placing the important elements along the z and its intersections can create a more dynamic page. The eye will naturally follow the path of the Z. You can use this rule on its own or alongside the rule of thirds to create many successful designs. In advertising or website design, the ‘call to action’ would be at the end of the ‘Z’ as that’s where the eye stops.
Be aware of the way your eye moves over the following layouts from our design team, and the two sketches we have provided by way of inspiration this week.
Jill van Iperen has illustrated the Flow design principle from left to right across her page. Her page features flowers, butterflies,ribbon and journalling cards from the Prima Fairy Belle range. You will see how she has incorporated the lace in a curved line to help draw your eye across the page.
Janine has used the Ambrosia line by Bo Bunny to create this LO on the design principle of Flow. She has used her title and a trio of floral clusters to draw you eye across the page in a Z like motion. Starting with the sub title and finishing on the final sub title and adding weight to the items in between so they do not go un-noticed either.
