Question: Why do small businesses settle for poor to average design? Part Two: Center Justify, Just say no.

What with all the software available, online printers, and social media to use for marketing yourself, a lot of businesses are determined to do their own design to save money. Center justify is used, again, and again, and again on websites, business cards, brochures, Facebook cover photos, Facebook photo id’s, you name it. I’ve seen a whole brochure center justified. I’ve seen lists center justified.

Ok, I admit it. (Hanging my head in shame.) I’m guilty too. When first I started doing flyers for a local arboretum I center justified. Enrolling in a digital design program enlightened me. A good book for beginning designers is "The Non-Designer's Design Book" by Robin Williams. 

Why center justify? If others were working off of the same mistaken belief as I, it was to draw attention to the information. The belief is that having everything in the middle will focus on the text and important information. It offers balance. It looks good, right? Not really. If everything is in the middle, then everything is “focused” and, essentially, you aren’t focusing on anything. It also screams amateur. 

Basic composition principles apply to photography, traditional art and design. One of them is the rule of thirds. The main focus of a design or image is off center. This applies to text as well. There are exceptions to the rule but the key word here is “exception”.

Center justify is good for headings, titles, and sometimes logos. It is not good for lists.

Example of a center justified list.

Abilene   Albuquerque   Amarillo   Anaconda   Anchorage

Apple Valley   Arlington   Athens   Atlanta   Augusta   Aurora

Austin   Babbitt   Bakersfield   Baltimore   Baton Rouge

This city list is in columns and left justified. It’s professional looking, orderly and easier to read than the list above.

Don't center justify or center everything. The flyer below has everything center justified and the store image is centered. 

The second example has the store image moved down a little. The saturation of blue and largest text is at the top. Information for the store is at the bottom and aligned to the right.

The second flyer is more visually appealing.

Check out my website at http://leftofcentergraphics.com