“Simplicity is complexity resolved.” – Constantin Brancusi
When your design comprises different elements such as text, images, or shapes you will definitely need something to arrange them so that they look appealing, organized, and meaningful.
In this post, let’s find out how you can organize the elements in your design with the help of the Layering tools in Youzign.
What is a layer?
Think of a layer as an invisible sheet on your canvas. You can add a number of different elements like shapes, images, text or a combination of these on each individual sheets. These sheets, when piled together, is what makes up your 2D flat design.
In Youzign, you can arrange layers with the help of the Layering tools. These tools may not be as complex as the Layering panel in Photoshop which will give you an advanced menu to customize individual layers, however, the Layering feature in Youzign allows you to edit straightway on the canvas and assign the position of each individual element through a set of buttons. This makes your designing simpler and quicker.
Here are the four buttons that can help you layer the elements in your design:
Bring Forward – moves a selected element one step forward on your canvas
Bring to Front – moves a selected element on the foreground or topmost layer
Send Backward – moves a selected element one step backward on your canvas
Send to Back – moves a selected element on the background
You can click these options until you achieve your desired layout.
Now to get a better grasp on this feature, let’s inspect three published templates in Youzign which showcase simple to complex layering techniques. I would recommend loading up the following templates in your Youzign editor so we can simultaneously examine how our in-house designers put them together.
Ready? 🙂
Simple layering:
Can you name the elements that make up this banner template?
Which of the elements are found on the topmost layer?
What element is placed in the background?
Try to select the asterisk shape on the bottom right corner of the design. How do you move it one step backward?
A bit tricky:
On this second template, let’s focus on the banned fly logo at the left side. Please don’t pull up the template on your editor just yet! First, try to guess how the fly was inserted in the circle with the parts of the insect overlapping on the shape.
If you have your guess already, you can now inspect the template in Youzign. Click on the diagonal red line enclosing the fly, you’ll discover how our designers have brilliantly created this effect. You don’t need mad graphics skills to come up with this really – just the layering tools in Youzign and a bit of creativity. 🙂
Complex layering:
By simply looking at our last sample above which is an infographic template, you’ll probably figure out why there is complex layering involved when our designers created it. There are lots of elements cast on the canvas – combinations of texts, vector images, and shapes and these are not easy to arrange.
Now, when layering gets tough… there’s another feature that will help you get you going.
Can you guess which Youzign feature is it?
If your answer is the Grouping tool, you got it right! 🙂
The Grouping tool is very handy when you need to move a set of elements on the same layer.
In your Youzign editor, try to click on the title of the infographic above. You’ll see that these are actually varying texts grouped together.
The texts in the title are made up of three different font styles with varying sizes namely ChunkFive, Coolvetica, and DriodSerif. Now, these elements will take time to move and layer individually but, easier when you group them together. Saving related elements as groups prior to layering can save you much time and sanity when designing.
Wrap up…
Layering is a vital aspect of designing. It lets you arrange graphic elements on different levels to produce an outcome that will convey your message effectively. Without layering, your design will look chaotic and plain meaningless.
Youzign offers a simpler approach to layering elements that can benefit all users no matter what design level they belong to. This feature may not be as complex as in other advanced graphics apps out there but is enough to help you come up with a design that is neat, organized, and significant.
I hope this simple post is able to add up to your Youzigning skills 🙂 Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.
Happy Youzigning 🙂
P.S. Our restless development team is looking forward to improving the Layering feature in Youzign by adding a Layering panel. This will give you extra versatility in customizing layers in your design without being too complicated.
P.P.S. If you haven’t tried the power of Youzign yet, you can test drive it for free for two weeks here. Cheers!
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