Every art composition follows the same principles of design. You can communicate more accurately your message if you respect the principle of symmetry and balance on your designs.
Balance
Is a key design principle that dictates how elements of a design should be arranged (on a two-dimensional space in the case of graphic design) so that all elements (positive and negative space) compensate each other.
Positive Space
Areas of focus of a design. The elements that make up your design, it can be text, graphics, textures…
Symmetry and Balance in design
On this image you can see an example of positive (marked with yellow arrows) and negative space (marked with blue arrows)
Symmetry and Balance: Negative Space
Represents the background, the empty space around the elements that form your design. On the above image is marked with the blue arrows.
On the image below the concept of positive and negative space is used creatively: The use of negative space (black background) help create the shape of the fork at and at the same time represents the wine bottles. Negative and positive space represent both ideas: food (fork – positive space) and wine (wine bottles-negative space).
Note: The concepts of Positive and Negative space have nothing to do with color or black and white.
Now that we know what positive and negative space is, we can talk about balance. A balanced composition is pleasing to the eye while an unbalanced composition creates visual tension. Creating an unbalanced composition is not necessarily a bad thing, it all depends on what you want to communicate.
Always keep in mind that design is a type of communication and the rules of composition help you communicate your message in a more effective way. The rules of symmetry and balance help you create your design in such a way that your message is interpreted by your audience the way you wanted and more efficiently that randomly placing your elements.
Let’s see the different types of balance we can use in design.
Visual or physical balance
There are multiple ways of achieving balance on your designs: balance by color, by contrast, by proximity, etc. Visual balance is achieved depending on where you place your elements with respect of the center of your composition and their weight. Two elements of the same size can have different weights.
Keep in mind that the true center of your composition is not the same as the optical center. The optical center of a composition is a little higher than the geometric center. Is where the eye finds balance naturally if there are no elements to lead the eye to another focal point on the image.
Yellow dot: Optical center
Placing elements at the same distance from the center will help you create balance on your design composition. On the image below, both silhouettes at the same distance from the center of the frame.
Visual balance in graphic design
If different elements are placed away from the center, these can be counter weighed by elements on the opposite side or with different size. On the example below, the red square on the top left, even though is smaller, has the same weight as the black area on the bottom of the composition.
Think of each element as a weight on a scale or a seesaw where the pivot point is the center of your composition and the beam is your canvas.
The color and position of the red rectangle gives it the same weight as the big black area on the bottom. The bottom shape has no color which give it less weight but it compensates the lack of color by its size and distance from the center of the composition
If you have different elements with different weights, these should be placed at different distances with respect of the center of the composition if you want to achieve balance
In most cases placing all elements at the same distance is either boring or simply not suitable for a design. Also we have more variables such as size, contrast and color which can help us balance our design.
Asymmetrical balance
You achieve asymmetrical balance when elements of the design are placed in such a way that their weight is visually unequal on the composition. In other words, one part of the composition could have a big dominant element which is compensated by many smaller elements on the opposite side like in the image below.
Bauhaus poster with asymmetrical balance. The top part is compensated by multiple smaller elements on the bottom part.
If you place elements closer to the bottom of the composition you get a stronger balance and a sense of stability on the image. They add weight to the image and “drag” the composition downwards.
On the next image you can see another example of asymmetrical balance.
Symmetrical balance
All elements of the design have the same visual weight, and they are placed at the same distance from the center of the composition. Take a look at the examples below.
Radial balance
This is almost self-explanatory. The elements are balanced around a common point.
Symmetry
Symmetry is usually a synonym of balance. One could say that they are related terms because symmetry implies the concept of balance. Using symmetrical elements on your composition creates a pleasing and harmonic effect. There are different kinds of symmetry but the first one that comes to our minds is mirrored symmetry.
Symmetry and Balance in photo manipulation
These are the basics of balance and symmetry, next I will show you something more related to our artistic field which is photo manipulation.
In this manipulation I used symmetry to create the arms coming from around the tree. This is a good example of a balanced manipulation. It looks stable from a compositional point of view.
We have a main subject and an artificial framing around her (the arms) that add tension to the image. The pose, expression and the chains contributes to the same idea: trapped, tied up, agony, possession.
It’s a symmetrically balanced image: the subject is standing right in the middle, the tree creates a vertical line that adds more “stopping” power. As you can see I compensated the lighter part of the background with the dark area on the bottom half of the image.
There is plenty of space around the subject (negative space) which make the subject stand out. In terms of color, everything has the same desaturated green hue and the white shirt of the model attracts the viewer’s attention from the first moment.
At the bottom of the composition the plants create depth of field but they are not standing out because they are very dark. I just wanted to get more depth of field without the plants grabbing attention
The center point of the manipulation is the red cross on the shirt. This point stands a little higher than the geometrical center. Overall the image is read vertically and all elements contribute to that.
Symmetry and Balance Conclusion
Improving your design composition depend on many factors. Using the principles of design you will get a better understanding of how to create your graphic works. You’ll have more tools at your disposal to communicate your message in a more effective way.
