One of the most important elements that you need to pay attention to when you are working on your graphic design images is balance. Balance refers to the ability of one part of the image that you create to balance out another part of the image in the eye of the beholder. This could mean anything from a balance in shape to a balance in colour or value. This is not to say that balance always needs to be a priority (i.e. a lack of balance in a picture could signify movement, which we have already discussed), but knowing how to do it is something that could prove useful to you in the long run.

The most obvious way to create balance is through using symmetry within your image. This type of balance is known as formal balance, called such because of the fact that you are actually creating balance in an image by making both sides of the image exactly mirror images of each other. Consider a building such as a church that is completely symmetrical and then think about a photograph of this particular building. If you cut that photograph down the middle with a pair of scissors, you would have two halves that would mirror each other. This picture is in balance and what’s more it is in formal balance.

Formal balance is the easiest type of balance to maintain within an image and thus it should be the type of balance you start with when you decide to tackle this particular concept.

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