Lynda Barry’s, “What It Is”, Page 81

The image to the right-taken from Lynda Barry’s, “What It Is”-acts as a fine demonstration of creatively incorporating layers in the page’s design. There is a lot going on in this page, yet it all works due to her use of layers. The layers are evenly spaced out and discernible from one another. For example, we know the growth at the top of the page is perhaps the foremost layer. Whereas the center paragraphs that ends with “Doing both takes and Gives Time-” is perhaps on the bottom most layer.

It appears as though Lynda Barry used a form of layering known as Cut and Paste. This refers to the physical process of making a collage. After all,  a collage is just a sequence of layering when you think about it.

Lynda Barry’s use of layering allows her to treat each image as an asset. She is both able to single out the image, as well as blend it together with other images and texts. In other words, Each image could be viewed individually, or the reader could step back and simply enjoy the collection.