Thanks Living Challenge: The Visual Triangle

Happy hello, my scrapbooking friends! Erika Hayes from Club CK here.  I wholeheartedly believe that if you understand how and why a design concept works, you are more likely to utilize it on your scrapbooking layouts, which is why I am so excited to share another design principle with you in this month’s Thanks Living challenge. This month, our focus is on the visual triangle, a concept that can easily and effectively improve our design skills by combining three concepts we have already discussed this year: lines, points, and odd numbers.

Loving You by Erika Hayes.

Let’s start with…

The Importance of Lines, Points, and Odd Numbers

Do you remember our discussion on the “z” formation? The “z” formation is a natural flow for the eyes across a page, and it works because our crazy brains come back to lines all the time.

Well, the visual triangle concept is no different. A visual triangle is so powerful because it uses lines to direct attention to the focal points of our layouts, and it does this using three lines and three points — two sets of odd numbers!

Odd numbers, as we mentioned last month, are a great way to trick the mind into examining your entire layout. And, of course, the combination of these lines and points creates a shape, and while loving lines is what our brains do, they love shapes even more!

The Visual Triangle

So, what is a visual triangle? Simply, it is an imaginary triangle you create on your layout.  Why does it work? Let’s take a look at this triangle:

As mentioned above, when you combine lines, points, and odd numbers, the result is a very effective way to use your growing skill of mind control to direct how the brain perceives your layout.

Creating a Visual Triangle

You can use the lines of the visual triangle to highlight information that is important to your layout.

When the red triangle is removed, you can see the layout composition is effective and adds importance to my focal photo. It is also important to note that visual triangles can stretch nicely over two page layouts, and that the visual triangle is a great design principle to bring a larger space together and create a unified layout.

I want to leave you with a few tips on how to create a visual triangle:

Remember your lines are “invisible,” but your eye will make the connection if elements are placed so that they create a triangle.

A visual triangle can be made using several techniques. Here are a few to consider:

• Repeated embellishments in the triangle points
• Identical color at the triangle points
• Identical shapes  at the triangle points, such as stars, hearts, or banners
• Repetitive words or text in the points of the triangle
• A combination of any or all of the above

A designer can create a visual triangle from almost anything, simply keep in mind that odds work best, and that repetition is vital to an effective visual triangle.

Join us for this month’s Thanks Living challenge, and use the visual triangle to create your next masterpiece!

About the Thanks Living Challenge

The Thanks Living challenge is an ongoing yearlong challenge that you can begin at any time. Remember: if you are busy counting your blessings, you will lose track of your misfortunes!

If you have missed any of the Thanks Living challenges, you can find them all here:

• Introduction to Thank Living
• Thanks Living Challenge #1 – Points and Lines
• Thanks Living Challenge #2 – Visual Hierarchy
• Thanks Living Challenge #3 – Layering and Clustering
• Thanks Living Challenge # 4 – Balance and Symmetry
• Thanks Living Challenge #5 – Odd Numbers

—Erika Hayes, Club CK moderator