Ignore design balance at your peril. Balance is a big one.
Our brains and our hearts seek balance. Anything, whether a photo, a presentation slide, a real life instance, is reassuring, restful, perfect, if it is in balance. Lucia’s recognized that this duplex is almost playfully overly balanced and took a photo from a position that emphasizes the balance — dead center, head on.
The architect created her design emphasizing the principal of balance. Her design asks us to look for the instances that line up perfectly between left and right, top and bottom. In this duplex, they do. With a vengeance. The architect has recognized the humor in her strict adherence to this design choice by adding two little bonus windows. In the balanced scheme that guides rest of the design they are out of place and the wrong color. But it is the power of the balance that makes them stand out and work with humor to point out how completely perfect is the balance.
How does balance apply to presentation design?
Think about Lucia’s photo as you decide where to place items on your slides. Draw an imaginary line through the center of your slide and ask yourself whether the left has the same weight as the right. Text placed properly can balance an image, two small images can balance a larger image. An even distribution will allow your design to stay upright. An uneven distribution will cause your audience unconscious discomfort or anxiety. The very last thing you want….
