Layout Fix #3: Making a Double Layout

Today's layout was submitted by Kimmie.

This layout has lots of good things going for it. And either of these pages by themselves would be fine, however when taken together as a double layout, I think it's missing some continuity. There isn't much flow between the two pages, and since they are photos of the same event, I think you want them to blend together rather than standing apart as they are now.

My first step was to make a band across both pages and to turn off all the layers except the photos so I could lay them out without any distractions. This is what I came up with. Notice that the big photo is over the middle line, just enough so that you won't lose anything important to the crease, but to still bring the two pages together.

Next, I wanted to place the title. I often leave the title until the end, which creates a problem when there's no where left to put it. If you're going to have a title, put it on early so you can be sure it has good placement. I also added some circles in the background to help move the layout from one side to the other.

For the next step I added in the journaling and date.

Now the boring part is over and it's time to have fun. Let's put on some elements! Keep in mind that the elements have purpose beyond decoration and should be grouped with some intentionality so the eye continues moving across the page

To finish, I've added a few more papers layers to highlight the photos and tweaked my elements a bit.

What do you think? How did I do?

If you have a layout you'd like me to "fix" please email it to [email protected]. You'll likely need to zip the file and use a file sharing service (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc) to share such a large file. I will reply to your email to let you know I've received it. If you haven't heard from me after a day or two, try sending it again.