The World of Image - Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual - page 362

Media and Methods
Presentation Options
Content and Concept
MASSING THE COLLAGED elements along a horizon lends concrete spatial realism to the scene
despite its textural and abstract surface qualities. The massing of dark areas also forces a sense
of perspective that draws the viewer inward; this triangulated movement is counteracted by the
circular title cluster at the top.
2Fresh Turkey
Strategies for Composition Composition in an illustrated image is of great concern. In
creating a drawn image—especially one that is naturalistic—designers sometimes for-
get that they are not bound by the realities of arrangement imposed by the scene they are
rendering. Using the formal relationships of figure and ground (see Chapter 1 , page 37)
on an abstract level—particularly within a realistic representation—contributes to the
illustration's power to communicate beyond the literal as well as helps engage the view-
er and direct the eye. To simply place the subject in the central area of the illustration,
without regard to the subject's outer contour, tension, and contrast of negative space,
and so on, prevents the illustration from being resolved and creates a static presentation.
Just as cropping, position, relative sizes of elements, and contrast between linearity,
mass, angles, and curves are intrinsic to the decisive layout of graphic elements and ty-