Pleading the Fifth on the Rule of Thirds

“Iris, could you come in to my office when you get a chance?”

Our team designer sent me this chat one afternoon after I cropped my 326th professional photograph for the company website. We often chatted in a more casual tone, so as I walked down the hallway I had a feeling that something bad was about to happen. Was I in trouble? Was I going to be fired? I mean, I had my fair share of long lunches, but surely that’s not something to fire someone over, right?

“Do you know the concept of the rule of thirds?”

Yes. Well, sort of. I heard it once, understood it at the time, and then promptly forgot it. I tried to distract her with explanations of gestalt theory (I didn’t really know what I was talking about here either), but she saw right through me.

She went on to describe how the 326 photos I tediously cropped were all slightly off from this rule. I’m sorry, but this seems like something she should have told me before I started.

And then it hit me- that’s something I should have known.

I’m in the communications field and it is my responsibility to understand basic design principles. My goal is that by the end of this class, I can produce work that is taken seriously among others in the industry. I don’t want someone to look at my work and think “man, classic mistake.” In my previous experience, there was a large gap between desktop publishers and designers, and that gap was design principle. The skills I hope to acquire in Visual Aesthetics will be the difference between good and great projects.

For example, a website can have an efficient structure, provoking content, and solid tools, but if I landed on a page that didn’t look professional, I would search for an alternative. That’s the fact of the matter. Great design creates great reputation.

After reapplying the rule of thirds to 326 photos, I am a rule of thirds expert. Yes, I would say that with 100% confidence. But it took practice. So when I apply this class to my professional career, I expect to no longer be deterred by inappropriate visuals in order to create efficient and appealing designs. Using the excuse of “I didn’t know…” won’t cut it in the real world.