Design "Rules": Symmetry & Alignment

"To create something exceptional, your mindset must be relentlessly focused on the smallest detail." - Giorgio Armani

While I'd like to think I'm working my way up to "exceptional", one of my current projects brought to my minds' surface how nit-picky & perfectionistic my design tendencies are. Check out those guides! There's about 50 of them, and I'll tell you, every single spacing between the 15+ boxes is exactly the same.

It'd be easy to think, "Why bother?", when my boss & other proofreaders claim, "It's no big deal! No one else will notice" when I give my disclaimer that the boxes we're aligned properly during my first draft. But I would know; I would see the lack of symmetry each & every time I looked at this poster. It's true that others may not notice. That this poster will be hung on display at a Chamber of Commerce event and not a single soul would comment on, "a few of those white spaces being unequal". But taking the extra few minutes to make sure everything is symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing was worth it, and I believe, one of my strengths in my work.

The little things are important: in your work, in your leisurely life, and in your relationships. A slew of little things equate to some of the biggest and best things. I'll continue to use this as a reminder to give equal importance to the details.