Do you get stumped when coming up with a design for your cards? Where do you place that perfect flower or sentiment? One of the most well-known design principles is the “Rule of Thirds”. It applies to every form of design. We see it in home decorating, graphic design, photography, painting, and even scrapbooking and card making. In this installment of Stamping University, I will show you some simple ways to apply the Rule of Thirds to your card making.
What Is the Rule of Thirds?
The Rule of Thirds helps us compose our creations. It’s based on the principle that the human eye inherently prefers to see balance and movement in design and art. The Rule of Thirds establishes a guideline for us to follow. So let’s get started.
Divide your card front into 9 equal parts by imagining or even overlaying a grid that features three equally sized columns and three equally sized rows. It should look something like this:
Placing important design elements on the intersections of the horizontal and vertical lines, sometimes called “power points”, will help create balance and movement and ultimately result in a more polished, cohesive composition.
Why Use the Rule of Thirds?
The Rule of Thirds is the most well-known design composition tool for a reason. It’s simple but profoundly effective and can help improve the overall look at feel of your designs by:
- Adding balance and complexity without being overwhelming or confusing.
- Discouraging you from simply locating your focal point smack in the middle of your page or card.
- Creating a sense of direction within your composition by helping to direct the eye where you want it to go.
How Can You Use the Rule of Thirds?
Start composing your design by asking yourself two questions:
- What are your major points of interest? This could include things like logos, people, photographs, scrapbook embellishments, a cluster of stamped or die-cut pieces, quotations, or any focal point.
- Where should you place them? And that’s the million-dollar question. The Rule of Thirds can help you answer this question.
There are a few simple ways you can use the Rule of Thirds to help decide where to place your major points of interest.
1. Place focal points on or near power points.
2. Align elements along the vertical lines and horizontal axis. Think the letter ‘L’ in any direction. (Now I am feeling like a BINGO player, LOL!)
3. Align design elements along one of the horizontal lines.
4. Create flow within your design by allowing linear features and design elements to extend into other sections or diagonally through power points.
Using the Rule of Thirds Heirarchy
Remember that the most popular, eye-catching power point is the top-left intersection. With this in mind, it might be a good idea to place critical information or your main focal point on this power point. Following this, the most attention-grabbing power points are (in order) the bottom left, the top right, and lastly the bottom right.
Breaking the Rule of Thirds
Ok, now the moment you have all been waiting for….you don’t need to be exact when using the Rule of Thirds. Think of the Rule of Thirds as more of a guideline, and don’t worry if your focal points don’t exactly match up with the power points or axes.
The main goal of the Rule of Thirds is to encourage artists and designers not to locate their subjects or focal points right in the center of their canvas. But if you have a good enough reason to break the Rule of Thirds, by all means, go ahead and break it! Here are a few good excuses but feel free to add your own:
- You’re aiming to create a sense of symmetry. People like symmetry as much as they like balance and movement, so opting to create symmetry by breaking the Rule of Thirds is a perfectly valid design decision.
- You want to create a certain emotional resonance within your design. Centered focal points can feel aggressive and confrontational, so if that’s what you’re going for, consider centering your focal point instead of following the Rule of Thirds.
In Summary
Using the Rule of Thirds will help you create more visually interesting, balanced compositions, but if your specific project calls for you to break the rule, don’t hesitate to do so! Did this help with your design process? Like all things in life, it requires practice. Let yourself be creative. Now go forth and create beautiful things.
Do you want to know how I created the daisy clusters? I’ll show you tomorrow. See ya then (Meanwhile, collect the items in the supply list so you are ready to go.)
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Do Something Creative Every Day,
Ann, what a well written and helpful blog post! Stampers old and new can learn a great deal from it.
Such kind words. Thank you. I hope you are right. I love to work with people to be more confident card makers.
Ditto what Linda said about this being truly helpful. Your lovely cards are very clear examples of this rule. Thanks so much. Enjoy your day!
So glad you found this post helpful. I used to struggle with placement until I figured out how to apply the Rule of Thirds to card making not just Home Decorating.
Thank you for the design education. This was truly so helpful. (And your examples are stunning!) You are such an artist!
I am so glad that you found it helpful. You are making me blush by calling me an artist. We all have that creative artist in us.
Sometimes I look at a card I’ve made and think something is off about the balance. This tutorial is just what I needed. Thank you so much
You are so welcome, Anne.