The DoodleDo Basic Design Theme ~ Beauty in Simplicity

March 10th, 2010

DoodleDo will soon be switching to an all new, easier, online ordering system, and part of this change will be a re-classification of the design styles we offer. Along with our Basic and Graphic Design styles will be the new Enhanced Design. In conjunction with these changes, we thought it would be very helpful to take a look at each of these so that you will better understand what each offers, the various options and possibilities, and be well equipped to make your selections when placing your orders.

In this post we are featuring the Basic Design theme. It is very important to keep in mind that what we call a theme is not a template. Every design we create is custom. However, some of our clients want their albums to have a consistent theme, so we will reuse elements from their previous designs in new ones. While not containing graphic enhancements or embellishments, there is still a great deal of variety possible in a Basic Design, as shown in the three examples below.

This first design is a style often requested – single color pages, an ample amount of negative space, and fine strokes and borders to complement the image collection. It allows the beautiful photographs by Lisa Richmond to really stand out. When ordering a Basic Design you have the option of choosing any page color or colors, stroke and border colors, text treatments, and a number of other design preferences. You may also leave it completely up to us to create what we think best compliments your images.

In this next example, perhaps our second most popular style, you will notice that the primary difference from the above design is placement of elements and page color. It is less symmetrical and includes large, bold images contrasted with smaller images, resulting in less negative space. The gorgeous photographs, again by Lisa Richmond, dominate the spreads in an arrangement that is flowing and pleasing to the eye. Images with lower opacity allow other images to stand out and help spreads appear less busy.

This final example, created for photographer Tim Park, is a slight variation of the themes shown in both designs above. In this we are back to symmetry, simple borders and strokes, but with a more consistent placement of images from spread to spread. This design is accented with opening and closing full-spread panos, and one near the middle to break up the pattern. Note the font and text treatments used in all three of these designs. You are welcome to choose any font for your design. When we choose, we always select a font we believe matches the overall aesthetic of the image collection and design theme, along with any treatments that will blend the text into the design. Again, there should be no conflict between the images, the design, and the text.

We hope this article helps you to better understand the DoodleDo Basic Design theme. We will soon have our design galleries reorganized to better show the three options: Basic, Enhanced, and Graphic. In our next post we will take a look at the Graphic Design theme and describe what sets it apart. If you have an account with us, you will soon receive an email about the new ordering process.

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