Ideas for Scrapbook Page Storytelling with a Simple Linear Style

Monoline (simple linear styled) logos, stamps and other artwork are popular in graphic design. This type of design is created by rendering intricate images, typography and designs in single-weighted lines.

We always love seeing how our team takes the challenge to use a specific and trendy approach in their pages. Read on for pages inspired by this simple linear style.

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Lynn Grieveson says, “While on holiday in Australia we tried to track down a pelican feeding and knew we were in the right place when we spotted the pelican perched on a lamp post.”

“A lot of the photos here were quite messy in that they featured lots of flapping wings and open beaks and cars in the carpark, so the linear style was a good contrast to that as well as working really well with the more “still” photos like the pelican on his post. An open linear font is also really good for journaling on top of photos.”

“The open linear style influenced my choice of fonts and the evenly spaced photo design. My tips for this style would be to keep to a limited color palette and if including patterned papers, geometric patterns work best.”

 

Marcia Fortunato says, “My husband and I recently traveled to Egypt to visit our youngest son who is studying there. We did a lot of sightseeing with him, and this page is about our first day, when we went to see the pyramids near Cairo.”

“I like a graphic look on my pages, particularly those that have a lot of photos, so I was drawn to the clean simple look of the monoline style. Because the pyramids have a simple but iconic shape, this simple linear style worked well for a title treatment.”

“I was inspired by these designs, but I couldn’t find one for the pyramids. So using Silhouette Studio Designer I created and cut my own design to use as my title. Because the title is so open and airy, it is easy to add other simple narrow lines to balance the color and design of your page, as I did across the bottom of my block of photos.”

 

Dawn Farias says, “The story of my page is about the closeness in age of my first four kids.”

“The linear style was a good base for literally illustrating the stairstep motif for my story. I used this style by drawing out my stairsteps and then filling them in with the line patterns. I recommend using this doodle-style by realizing it is a bunch of triangles and focusing on that as you go about filling in the spaces.”

 

Karen Poirier-Brode says, “This page is about my grandson’s delayed Easter celebration. I know that he likes cookies and tried my hand at suitable decorations.”

“I immediately thought of a baking sheet when I considered a simple linear approach. My style leans to color, texture and embellishment so this was challenging. The columns and grids keep it simple. I chose simple linear fonts. I added a bit of glitter to the baking sheet and chose a tetrad color scheme of yellow-orange, yellow-green, red-violet and blue-violet to work with the photos and add harmony to the layout.”

 

Lynnette Wilkins says, “This page shows the growth of my daughter over a year, with a snapshot from each month.”

“A simple design was a great choice for this page so that I could keep the focus on photos. And because there are so many (12), I didn’t want them to get overwhelmed with a lot of layers and embellishments. I went with black and white text & elements and laid out the photos in simple straight rows. The background paper brings in color but still keeps a strong linear feel with the diagonal lines and color blocking. When choosing patterns, text, and elements, go with those that have a strong geometric design.”

 

Megan Blethen says, “My youngest turned 7 last year and I knew he would love a colorful, rainbow layout so I decided to make a simple page about his birthday. I knew this event would be great for the linear page style because for birthdays I like to pick one photo and have the layout be mainly about them and their age, then most of the other photos get put in a pocket page.”

“This photo of my son licking the candle after blowing them out was perfect for the cake idea I used. I have a hard time leaving white space on a layout so after creating my line down the middle, I added a balloon cut file on white paper for a subtle pattern on the background. I also added border strips and sewing around the edge to make your eye focus on the most important part of the layout, my son!”

 

Deborah Wagner says, “This is my granddaughter with a thoughtful look on her face. The simple linear style works because I wanted my page free of embellishment clusters to keep the focus on my granddaughter’s beautiful face. I used this style often because I like my photos to be the most important item on my layout. This style requires a good quality photo because there is nothing to distract the viewer’s eye.”