{"id":557,"date":"2015-08-03T10:13:09","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T10:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.magnium-themes.com\/hind\/hind-2\/?p=557"},"modified":"2015-08-03T10:13:09","modified_gmt":"2015-08-03T10:13:09","slug":"beyond-the-boring-the-hunt-for-the-webs-lost-soul-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendly-hugle.93-93-118-120.plesk.page\/?p=557","title":{"rendered":"Beyond The Boring: The Hunt For The Web\u2019s Lost Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

A balanced composition feels right. It feels stable and aesthetically pleasing. While some of its elements might be focal points and attract your eye, no one area of the composition draws your eye so much that you can\u2019t see the other areas.<\/p>\n

Balancing a composition involves arranging both positive elements and negative space<\/strong> in such a way that no one area of the design overpowers other areas. Everything works together and fits together in a seamless whole. The individual parts contribute to their sum but don\u2019t try to become the sum.<\/p>\n

An unbalanced composition can lead to tension. When a design is unbalanced, the individual elements dominate the whole and the composition becomes less than the sum of its parts. In some projects, unbalanced might be right for the message you\u2019re trying to communicate, but generally you want balanced compositions.<\/p>\n

Note<\/strong>: This is the seventh and final post in a series on design principles. You can find the first six posts here:<\/p>\n

Physical And Visual Balance<\/h1>\n

Balance is easy to understand in the physical world, because we experience it all the time. When something is unbalanced, it tends to fall over. You\u2019ve probably been on a seesaw or a teeter-totter at some time in your life \u2014 you on one side and a friend on the other.<\/p>\n

Assuming you were both about the same size, you were able to easily balance on the seesaw. The following image appears to be in balance, with two equally sized people equally distant from the fulcrum on which the seesaw balances.<\/p>\n

The person on the left makes the seesaw rotate counterclockwise, and the person on the right makes it rotate clockwise by an equal amount. The force of each person acts in a different direction, and their sum is zero.<\/p>\n

\"5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If one of the people was much bigger, though, the balance would be thrown off.<\/p>\n

Here, the force of the larger person is reduced by being closer to the fulcrum on which the seesaw balances. I\u2019ll trust you\u2019ve been on a seesaw before or at least watched others play on one and that you have a pretty good sense of what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

Visual balance is similar. Physical weight is replaced by visual weight. The direction in which the physical weight acts is replaced by visual direction.<\/p>\n

As a reminder, below are definitions for visual weight and visual direction, although I\u2019ll refer you back to the fourth post in this series for more details.<\/p>\n