Update: Looking back at this I've made it sound like a cure-all, which it isn't - perhaps I've been a tad flippant. But hey, the beauty of the blog is that I can pop back in and fiddle about a bit more, so here goes:
This has worked for me many times, when I'm working on a simple, usually asymmetric* layout. Bold text, simple graphics. Very much in the Constructivist or Swiss styles, or epitomised by the likes of Matter, Zwart, Muller-Brockman. The angle has a tendency to suggest movement, upward in this case, while the horizontal can feel too stable when drama/dynamism is required. Think Suprematist paintings like this more specifically stuff like this or this. Or this.
Is that any better?
* Actually, I really only ever do asymmetric, but that's another story.
So far so good. I'm not really a designer, just a programmer with a curiosity about good visual design.
Keep it up.
Posted by: grant | 18 March 2007 at 03:23 PM
love the card generator! the scribbles made me laugh. i look forward to seeing more.
Posted by: Jane | 19 March 2007 at 05:19 AM
I was interested to read your first card.
I'm a former Art Director at Turner Classic Movies. I'm a self-taught illustrator, designer and director. While there, I had a wonderful designer whom I worked with. He had his masters from SCAD and I trusted him implicitly. Whenever we were working on a layout I would invariably turn the layout around to look at it from different angles. He asked why I would do this and I had no answer, I was just looking for balance, or tension. Not sure. Now, it seems I might have been doing something else.
Cool site.
Posted by: ben | 19 March 2007 at 11:25 PM