there is a common rut that most MsnTv users are mired in, often resulting in images and websites look the same as the next. this is the habit of centering everything. centering destroys character. look at your face in the mirror (without gagging). sure, it is bisymmetrical, but look closer. we all have one eye slightly misaligned, or a mole that is only on one side of the face. this is what makes human faces interesting. even ugly ones. this also applies to images and webpages.
do you enjoy beautiful professional photographs? look at your favorite ones, the subject matter is very rarely dead-center. the human eye never stands still, it has a tendency to scan back and forth. hence center alignment is never holds as much interest as off-centering.
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here's an image with the subject placed virtually dead-center. only the fact that it is a high-quality art photo saves it from being totally boring.
below, the subject is placed well to the right. now, mass and void have come into play. the mass (subject) appears more dense and brooding, the void (blank space) seems vast in comparison.
the further you place a subject to the edge of an image, the more 'modern' and 'clean' it appears, but may be to severe for some tastes.
this works very well with facial shots. i've seen some websites that used this extreme off-center effect on their opening page, with only half of their face peering from the edge of the screen. it arouses the viewer's curiosity, and entering the site becomes irresistable.
what if we had to design a simple little page for a local festival. available to us is a title:
and an image:
. and a block of text. how would you put them together? would your design look like this? (actually, the average MsnTv users' page would probably look something like this, but that's a can of worms for another section of this site.)
centering all your elements looks cold and is best reserved for formal wedding invitations. on this page and this page i've not only placed the elements in a more interesting manner, but also saved a huge amout of space, leaving room for more text and images, if needed. i'm sure the use of a table would bring better results.
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