An Unfortunate Acronym

As a publications designer with nearly 20 years experience in layout and design, I'm often called up on to teach and share my experiences in layout with classes and in other venues. In fact, I'm writing a book chapter about it for a new editing text.

Most of what I can teach is boiled down into four terms, which, taken together, spell a rather unfortunate word: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity.

Yes, folks, the word is CRAP. (Also used in the Nondesigners Book of Design, which I frequently use as a text in class.)

Contrast, essentially, means if you're going to use two different fonts, colors, shapes, sizes or images in your layout, make sure to make them VERY different. Good, contrasting colors in the Stampin' Up! line include any true colored cardstock and Whisper White. Very Vanilla also contrasts well with the jewel-toned and darker cardstocks. 

In the world of stamped images, look for clean lines that go with fussy florals; fancy type that goes with simple images, and so on.

Repetition means, in part, consistency. Using the Eastern Blooms florals on a card? Use them all the way through the design, and resist the temptation to break out a different set of florals that may not work well with them. But it also means repeating simple elements all the way through a design--a butterfly on the front of a card can be repeated on the back of the envelope, for example.

Alignment means to have elements line up in such a way as to draw the eye naturally from one element to another. A classic pattern is a left-to-right zig-zag, which mimics the way most in Western civilizations read. Start with text or an image in the top left, draw a mental line to the middle right and add something contrasting, then draw a line to the lower left for some sort of embellishment. Other patterns can be viewed in the 2009 Idea Book and Catalog, but the idea behind alignment is to work with what human beings do naturally with their eyes.

Finally, proximity: group like items together. That's it. Florals go together, shapes go together, dots go together, texts go together, colors go together, and so on. Stampin' Up! has that one nailed with coordinating papers, inks, colors and stamps that make it practically impossible to make ugly cards. 

Nothing is ever completely wrong. Let your creativity be your guide. But if it helps, when you're frustrated, just think of CRAP.