- I've found most designers to be a little OCD.
We prefer items to be in their correct home,
counters clean, and everything well-organized.
The Shakers had a good saying,
"A place for everything and everything in its place."
So it can be a little scary
when a client sends me a file of 20 disparate images
and disordered text.
Of course, it's my nature
to start organizing them immediately.
Now, I can start by pushing the pieces
around on the page or screen until it seems nice,
or I can create unity and order with consistent proportions.
People have been working with proportions
since we began measuring things.
The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans
used proportions based on the human body, astronomy,
and mathematical geometry.
Today, we use a variety of proportional systems to organize.
One of the simplest and most effective approaches
is to use a square as a common and unifying device.
Just putting images in their own perfect square,
or combination of squares, conveys a sense of order.
This website uses a set of scrolling squares
to delineate information about each theatrical event
and accompanying images.
The same technique works well for text and information.
The messages and icons are unified
in the same square shape for this signage program.
The squares don't need to be the same size.
Their similar proportion allows for a range of scale,
in this instance, creating a sense of unity and clarity.
When I work with a square as my base proportion,
I start with a simple layout of squares
all the same size and lined up.
This can work perfectly if the content is complex,
or be dull as a hammer.
Once I'm happy with this, I'll start to play with it.
Remember, you can save this version
and make as many others as you like.
Take one of the squares and scale it 200%,
take a few others and reduce them 50%.
This begins to create a dynamic hierarchy.
Now, stretch some of the squares
to occupy two or three squares.
The layout is now ready to add content,
and feel free to scale and reshape the squares as needed.
You'll find if you maintain
the square proportion religiously,
you can do almost anything
and the layout will always feel unified.