Layout and composition

In my Graphic design class, we are currently designing flyers for t-shirts we have created. My teacher has extensively gone over the subject of layout with us. Two helpful rules of good layout are the 'Rule of thirds' and 'The golden rectangle'. These two particular rules will help me greatly with composition and layout when it comes to designing my magazine pages.

The rule of thirds is about how to position the subject in a picture or a photo to make it more pleasing to the viewer's eye. This will be very beneficial when I take photos of my friends to create my own bands withing my own magazine. The picture will be far more professional and in step with a real magazine publication.

Below I have an examples of the rule of thirds in action:

Above you can see a photo of two bikes. It's an average photo but nothing special, there's no real frame to it and it wouldn't look brilliant in a magazine. Watch what happens when the rule of thirds is applied to the above photograph.


The above photo now looks far better, everything is well proportioned and it has an attractive natural frame to it.

The Golden Rectangle is a 'visually pleasing geometric shape with pleasing proportions'