Page from 100 Demons by Lynda Barry

Framing is an important aspect of graphic novels and creative design as a whole. From reading Graphic Design: The New Basics I learned that a border is not the only way an object can be framed some, for example, can be implied from objects surrounding a man focal point that leads the viewers eyes instinctively towards it. With these tools of framing an artist can subconsciously lead a viewer through his art and make a person see an object in a new light.

In one of the graphic novel that I viewed in the CDSC called One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry I was able to see the different things that can be done with framing that I previously never thought about. In the example given above I noticed how she decorated the border surrounding the frame with things like glitter to make the page more visually interesting. I also noticed that she didn’t use the whole page to cover the two images in the frame and made the two images different sizes from each other. This action made me focus more on the bigger image on the right and gave it more importance on the page.

In the spaces outside the frames Lynda Barry also decorated to make the book feel more like a scrapbook, which I thought was a good idea as most artist in graphic novels and comics that I saw had not done this. These somewhat unorthodox methods that Lynda Barry utilized in something as simple as framing left a big impression on me and made her book stand out more than the other ones I previously saw,