Before&After Design Tip: Condense Your Design
Think small and focused to to get good results easily.
Here’s a quick design tip on layout from issue 42 of Before&After Magazine.
Designing a whole page can seem daunting—there’s so much space to fill! It’s tempting to scale everything up, up, up and fill it all in. But that’s not design.

Here’s a better way to get good results easily. Think small and focused. Reduce your work area to the middle of the page and design that.

It’s much easier, and you’ll get a built-in focal point, too.
CreativePro members can download original content from Before&After Magazine, a beloved resource that taught a generation of newly minted digital designers how to design and communicate effectively with the written word. See our archive here.
© John McWade/Before&After Magazine, courtesy of Gaye Anne McWade.
This article was last modified on January 3, 2026
This article was first published on February 21, 2025
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