Quadrant style layouts

The journaling reads:

Like most newborn babies, early spring is not pretty. The snow has melted away to reveal a greyish-brown lawn. The trees are still bare except for their tiny buds. The flowers have not yet blossomed into vibrant colors. Yet it's the end of misery and the beginning of new life that makes this time so beautiful. ~March 12, 2012

I have started to do a lot of quadrant style layouts like the one pictured above. It is an attractive way to display multiple photos from a shoot. It's also an easy way out when I'm trying to decide how to lay out my pictures. The pictures take up the entire frame, so I don't need to worry about a background. This style also leaves little room for text, which is good if I'm feeling a little short on words.

There are a few tricks to making the quadrant style layout work. It looks best with a thin border. I usually use black or white, but sometimes I'll use a color from a photo. I play around a bit to see what looks best. Also, when two pictures have similar colors, I place them diagonal to each other to balance out the page.

Another option is to add a title in the color of the photo in the diagonal quadrant. For the layout below, I needed to add red in the upper left to balance the page:




Yet using the quadrant style does not mean you have to use four photos. You can save one or two for text and journaling, like this one:



I have discovered in my scrapbooking endeavors that sometimes simple is best, and a quadrant style often is the best solution. Thanks for looking!