Creating A Scrapbook Focal Point

One of the most important elements in a good design is creating a scrapbook focal point.

This is the most important element of a composition and all the other components are there to enhance this one element that you want viewers to focus on.

Asking The Right Questions

Photo courtesy of Karine

First, you need to establish what your focal point will be and this can be done by asking and answering a few questions.

What is the story I am trying to tell?
What do I want people to focus on when they see my scrapbooking page?
What other elements do I need to support the focal point on my page?

Write down the answers to these questions on a piece of paper to remind yourself what you are trying to achieve.

For example, let's assume you are creating a scrapbooking page for your daughter's seventh birthday party and you have pictures of her blowing out the candles, running around with her friends and so on. Yes, you probably need a whole album but just presume for one second you only need a page.

Well, as it is her birthday and you want people to know how touched you were when she proudly blew out all her candles and smiled, showing off a missing tooth, you decide to make that photo the central element of your composition.

All the other photos and artwork you wish to incorporate will have one role and that is to enhance the scrapbook focal point while leading the eye towards it.

Flow: The Key to Great Focal Points

The secret to creating a focal point in any design is flow, in other words creating graphic impact through the use of color, size, shapes and other objects to lead the eye to the central point of your composition.

The easiest way to describe flow is to look at how you read and write. In western countries people read from left to right, while in eastern countries people read from right to left. Therefore, the eye is trained to follow a certain pattern when it sees words on paper.

If the text or objects are arranged differently than expected, this causes tension. Tension can also be used to draw the eye to your scrapbooking page's focal point but it still relies on the principles of flow.

Coming back to the example of the birthday party, you can use the size of the photos to create flow, as well as color. So, you would make the focal photo the largest of all the photos you will be adding to your scrapbooking page.

The other photos should all be smaller and can be positioned so that the smallest leads to the largest, effectively drawing the eye to the largest photo on the page.

Also, background color can be used in a similar fashion, by creating a background gradient that naturally draws the eye to your scrapbook focal point. As the eye is drawn to contrast, consider positioning your photo on the side that offers the greatest contrast.

Remember, for a great design, no matter whether it's for your scrapbooking pages or your living room, you need to choose a good scrapbook focal point, which can be enhanced by using supporting elements.