by D. Sproul | October 25th, 2009
Negative space: You may have heard the term, but not know what it means. Designers may talk about the lack of it in a design.
Negative space is that elusive design area… that has nothing in it. It’s the space in the design that let’s the eye rest. The blankness between creative layout elements. The space can even be used to show a shape or letter. (Take a closer look at the FedEx logo next time you pass it. Do you see the arrow moving forward?)
If a layout is too full, with no negative space, it can feel overwhelming to the reader, as one approaches it. It can turn a reader away, make them turn a page.
Magazines are often good at feeding information out in small, palatable bits. Martha Stewart magazine is quite good at this. There are one to three small sections on a page, with additional info on how to make crafts in the back of the magazine. (It’s quite dense in the back.) Apple is also good at leaving lots of white space in their designs. Textbooks are not always good at this, nor is the GoDaddy website (sorry, guys).
Sometimes line-height, the space between text lines, can be spaced out differently in separate areas of the page. This make for an interesting look as well. Sometimes quotes or pulled-out text is spaced with taller line-height (double perhaps) right next to normal body text, with their text lines interlocking and overlapping a bit left to right.
Take a look at the next ad or magazine article you see. Does it feel inviting, easy to read? Do the websites you visit feel too busy, hard to navigate? Or are they clean and clear, with an interesting layout? Is the information in small pieces, that are easy to take-in? Sometimes the most important design is what you leave out.