The Positive Negative

Posted on February 22, 2007 by C Johnson
Design

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” So said Leonardo daVinci and, wouldn’t you know it, he was right. It’s a truth that designers 600 years later are exploring in both big and small ways. Or should I say, in Macro and Micro ways.

British designer Marc Boulton has written an intelligent and thought provoking piece called ‘Whitespace’ which is a delightfully fresh reminder to all of us that bad design is more often the result of failing to use white space, and not the other way around.

Macro white space, the negative space between the major elements in a composition is not (as some may argue) a lack of design. After all, one would hardly call the micro white space between words, captions and characters a ‘lack of design’. Both macro and micro white space serve similar functions—not only by adding a hint of elegance and sophistication, but by bringing balance to the design, letting the composition breathe, and even helping to guide the eye from one element to another. When combined, these two aspects of negative space create a powerfully positive result.

So go ahead: embrace the blank!

Comments

Leave a Reply