Be negative
One of the most commonly neglected aspects of design that I see is negative space. It’s the space in your design which contains nothing. It may be white, black, or could even have a background of some kind, but visually it is empty space. The modern trend in design seems to be to put in everything but the kitchen sink. This isn’t however the best way to get your point across. Consider one of the masters of negative space, Michelangelo.
Why does this image invoke such emotion? I give you a clue… Negative. Space. The careful use of negative space draws the eye and increases impact. So next time your working on a design, pay attention to the space you use, and the the space you don’t.
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Virginia Blog Carnival – preparing for Christmas…
Here we are, finally, with the Virginia Blog Carnival for this week. I’ve got quite a few entries, mainly because I poked around my RSS feed and added quite a few that caught my interest. I’m bouncing between “do-it-yourself,” and…
Trackback by CatHouse Chat December 4, 2006 @ 8:04 pm
[...] As I’ve said before negative space is a very underutilized aspect of design. So when I see good writing on that subject, it catches my eye. This morning I spotted an article by Mark Boulton on A List Apart. Mr. Boulton’s Whitespace article covers many of the different ways that whitespace is used in modern design. From Direct Mail: I soon discovered that the graphic design principles I’d learned in college were of little use when I designed for direct mail, where big, bold, and crowded is the order of the day. In the words of one client—words I will never forget—“whitespace is empty space.†[...]
Pingback by Thoughts on Design » On Being Negative January 9, 2007 @ 9:10 am