STRUZAN BALANCE PART 4

The Struzan studies continue! For this study, I wanted to explore how Drew Struzan uses symmetry.

SLIGHT DIFFERENCE

It’s rare for Struzan to use total symmetry, but one method he uses is the slight difference - below we see a composition where the only man differences are the women’s dress and how they overlay with the film strips:

PLACEMENT AND SIZING

We see somewhat of a similar approach here in Big Trouble in Little China. The women are pretty much the same, but the main difference that breaks the symmetry is their vertical placement:

The same technique is used below - a mirrored layout breaks symmetry by changing the vertical placements of the largest heads, and the sizing of the right and left pair of supporting characters:

BALANCED GROUPS

The last concept of this study is Balanced Groups. This is when Struzan balances two groupings of elements, that have the same visual weight, across from each other.

Young Indiana Jones in particular shows alternating grouping balance from Struzan:
First row: Older Indy balanced against 2 elements (younger Indy and Indy on a camel)
Second row: 2 elements (the couple and the boat) balanced against Indy in the tomb