How can you use panel layout for effective graphic storytelling?

1 The basics of panel layout

Panel layout is the way you divide your page or screen into frames, or panels, that contain your images and text. Panels can vary in size, shape, position, orientation, and border. Additionally, panels can overlap, merge, break, or extend beyond the page or screen. The way you use panels can create different effects on your reader. For instance, larger, isolated panels can help emphasize important moments or details. Smaller, horizontal panels can create a sense of movement or tension. Wide, vertical panels can help establish a setting or mood. And gaps, borders, or insets between panels can show transitions, connections, or contrasts.

2 The principles of panel layout

Panel layout is not merely a matter of aesthetics, but should be guided by some basic principles in order to effectively and clearly tell your story. Alignment, balance, contrast, proximity, and repetition are all important elements to consider when creating a panel layout. Align your panels to create a visual hierarchy and guide your reader's eye across the page or screen using grids, columns, rows, or centering. Balance your panels to create a sense of harmony and stability with symmetrical, asymmetrical, or radial balance. Create a sense of variety and interest with contrast by using different sizes, shapes, colors, or styles. Group your panels to create a sense of relationship and coherence with spacing, overlapping, or merging. Finally, repeat your panels to create a sense of rhythm and pattern with similar sizes, shapes, or angles.

3 The styles of panel layout

Panel layout can also reflect different styles of graphic storytelling, depending on the genre, tone, or message of your story. Traditional style uses regular, rectangular panels that are aligned and spaced evenly and is often used for realistic, historical, or classic stories. Experimental style uses irregular, non-rectangular panels that are misaligned and spaced unevenly and is often used for surreal, abstract, or innovative stories. Dynamic style uses angled, diagonal, or curved panels that create a sense of motion and energy and is often used for action, adventure, or sci-fi stories. Lastly, expressive style uses large, isolated or distorted panels to create a sense of emotion and impact and is often used for drama, horror, or comedy stories.

4 The techniques of panel layout

Panel layout can also employ different techniques to enhance the meaning and effect of your story. Bleed, for example, uses panels that extend beyond the page or screen, creating a sense of immersion and continuity. Splash, on the other hand, uses a single panel that occupies the entire page or screen, creating emphasis and importance. Montage combines multiple panels to show different aspects of the same scene, while collage combines multiple panels to show different images or symbols. These techniques are often used to show sequence, theme, mood, climax, revelation, turning points, perspectives and messages in the story.

5 The examples of panel layout

Panel layout can be inspired by a variety of sources and influences, such as art, culture, or history. Art Spiegelman's Maus uses a traditional style of panel layout with regular and rectangular panels to tell the story of the Holocaust and its aftermath. Chris Ware's Building Stories uses an experimental style with irregular and non-rectangular panels to tell the story of the lives and relationships of the inhabitants of a building. Frank Miller's Sin City uses a dynamic style with angled and diagonal panels to show the crime and violence in a dark and corrupt city. Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis uses an expressive style with large and isolated panels to tell the story of the author's childhood in Iran during and after the Islamic Revolution. Each panel layout creates its own unique atmosphere, from order and clarity to disorder and ambiguity, from motion and energy to emotion and impact.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?