QUICK TIP
Whilst it’s important to make sure that the composition of your text is well constructed, spending too much
time aligning everything will make this type of typography seem stiff and unconvincing. Instead of fretting
about how it all lines up, embrace your inner slob and go with what feels right!19
LARGE DUCK
To balance out the large fox in the bottom
right-hand corner, create a large duck in the top left
hand corner. Much like the fox, keep the lines as
flowing and sinuous as possible to create a feeling
of movement. This will help to guide the viewer
where to look and where to start reading. Use
highlights near the edges to give dimensionality to
the duck. Change the colour of the highlights to the
turquoise colour by following step 12.22
BLUE FLOURISHES
To add depth , some of the swirls need to
be strategically changed to a receding turquoise
colour. In a balanced manner, use the Polygonal
Lasso tool (L) to select swirls across the composition
that you feel need to be toned down. Cut and paste
these swirls onto a new layer and change the colour
by double-clicking on the layer and selecting Color
Overlay. Make sure these swirls are equally spaced
out to avoid creating large areas of receding colour,
which will make the composition seem ‘hollow’.20
ADD FLOURISHES
Swirls and flourishes not only add drama to
the image but also help to direct the eye to other
parts of the composition. You can create these
flourishes by hand or in Adobe Illustrator. However,
the easiest and most effective way is to use a font
called Nymphette, which includes a series of
beautiful swirls and flourishes. Position and size the
swirls so that they flow effortlessly from and to each
other, making sure that the gaps in between are
approximately equally spaced.23
EXPLOSION LINES
Finally, to turn the feeling of dynamism up
to full volume, add explosion lines that lead from
the centre of the image to the inside edge of the
border. This technique will help to fill in some of the
empty spaces in the composition and gives the
image maximum impact. Make sure you break the
lines with the Eraser (E) at the points where the
exploding lines intersect with the banners, text and
swirls. This will help to frame these elements and
maintain their legibility.21
GOLD FLOURISHES
Changing the colour of the top and bottom
swirls will help to ‘contain’ the text and make them
the focus. If you’ve used the Nymphette font to create
the swirls, make sure you rasterise the layer first by
Ctrl/right-clicking on the layer and clicking Rasterize
Layer. Select the swirls at the top and bottom of the
composition using the Polygonal Lasso tool (L) and
cut and paste them onto a new layer. Change these
swirls to a gold colour by double-clicking on the layer
and selecting Color Overlay.24
ZOOM OUT
Zoom out using Cmd/Ctrl+0 so that the
entire image fits onto your screen. Check that you
are happy with the composition of the image. The
position of all the objects should appear balanced
and there should be a natural ‘flow’ that leads the eye
from the start of the sentence to the end and then to
the other parts of the image. Make sure that the
areas of colour are balanced and help with the flow
of the composition rather than detract from it.CREATE CLASSIC TYPE