Gradients
Note to self: Big soft gradients are weak. They always look soft, not bold and definitive. They can be great for subtle transitions between solid colors. But my new rule is, never, ever use them to fade from a photo to another photo, or from a photo to a solid color. It just doesn’t work. It’s totally the lazy solution for having a photo fill up some space. Without tieing it in as a design element. I suppose it can be done tastefully, but it’s going to just cause more problems than it solves.