Oct 1

Symmetry or Balance?

Creative Graphic Design Alingment, Axis, Composition, Desig, Dilemma, Distances, Horizontal Stroke, Lettering, Letterings, Negative Space, Negative Spaces, Nuisance, Proper Balance, Relative Balance, Sign Painter, Silhouette, Space Interaction, Symmetrical Shape, Symmetry, Uniform Color, Virtual Line Add Comment (0)

Symmetry is one of the most perfect qualities. A symmetrical shape is about perfect. We have symmetry when the distances on both sides of an axis are equal. Balance is a whole other animal.

There is no way to quantify balance. It’s something that is felt. But it is not absolutely subjective. If a design lacks balance, everyone will notice. One way I can explain it, is that we achieve balance when we have the same amount of “grayness” on both sides. I have one sure fire way to check this out. I call it: “Step Back and Wink”. When you do, you perceive a more or less definite silhouette, which is the core of the design block so to speak. Then you adjust your alingment accordingly.

Balance is all about positive and negative spaces. Unless your design calls for big blocky letters, you will always have to deal with this dilemma. In the example, the lettering is thin and light in color. So the usual problem letters are going to be more of a nuisance. In our case, we basically have the “T” to worry about. As far as value in positive /negative space interaction, our “T” is behaving almost like an “I”.

As you can see, the leftmost part of the word “Jesus” is almost on the same vertical virtual line as the vertical part of the “L” in Light. It is pretty easy to achieve a relative balance as soon as one realizes there is such a need. Just nudge the offending block (or line) until it passes the wink test.

This is rather easy on a computer, but for a sign painter, the only way to balance a similar composition would be to stretch the horizontal stroke of the “T” in Light until the proper balance is achieved. That is why it is always better to use light weight letterings in single lines only or in combination with heavy block of text. It is not easy to achieve a uniform “color” with a block of light weight letters. Light weight letters have a rather open silhouette. This makes them difficult to balance, because one cannot perceive a definite border.

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Blog post by Tatán
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