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USING WHITE SPACE

USING WHITESPACE (Intro to GD, Wk 8)

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Week 8, Using Whitespace Presentation from Introduction to Graphic Design, Columbia College Chicago. Much of the content taken from readings, including the textbooks: Timothy Samara's "Design Elements" and "Design Evolution." Other references cited in presentation. Please note: many slides are intended for class discussion and might not make sense out of context.

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U S I N G W H I T E S PA C E

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F O R M + S PA C E

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FormForm is considered a positive element,

a solid thing or object.

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SpaceForm is considered negative—not in a bad way, but as

the absence, or opposite, of form. Space is the “ground” in which form becomes a “figure.”

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Form + SpaceThe relationship between form and space, or figure and ground, is complementary and mutually dependent: it’s

impossible to alter one and not the other.

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Form + Space = Visual LogicVisual logic, all by itself, can also carry meaning. The

figure/ground relationship composed in such a way that the feeling this compositional, or visual logic, generates

is perceived as appropriate to the message.

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Designing is the process of looking for and showing off the similarities and differences inherent in the

content of a visual message. This can sometimes take a good deal of time if the similarities do not

immediately present themselves. But the search for similarities is at the head of what a designer does.

(From Alex White, Elements of Graphic Design)

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C O M P O S I T I O N A L W H I T E S PA C E

( p u t t i n g s t u f f i n t o s p a c e , p 6 4 )

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The designer’s job is not to fill in all the space. It is to make information accessible and appealing.

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The Resolved CompositionTo say that a composition is “resolved” means that the reasons for where everything is, how big the

things are, and what they’re doing with each other in and around space—the visual logic—is clear, and

that all the parts seem considered relative to each other.

(From Samara text)

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What makes white space a compositional element and not just

empty space?

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S T R AT E G I E S F O R A R R A N G I N G F O R M

DistinguishingForcing clear separation between individual formal

elements enhances the sense of difference between them.

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S T R AT E G I E S F O R A R R A N G I N G F O R M

ClusteringThe greater the proportional changes in the outer contour

of the cluster, the more dynamic it will appear, along with the spaces around the cluster.

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S T R AT E G I E S F O R A R R A N G I N G F O R M

AligningCreating edge relationships.

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S T R AT E G I E S F O R A R R A N G I N G F O R M

OverlappingAllowing one form to cross in front of another, even if

both are the same color, will create the illusion of foreground and background.

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S T R AT E G I E S F O R A R R A N G I N G F O R M

LayeringThe use of transparency in a cluster enhances the illusion

of the apparent existence in three dimensional space.

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S T R AT E G I E S F O R A R R A N G I N G F O R M

BleedingWhen forms within the composition space appear to

leave the format they imply a much bigger composition extending outward into the “real” world.

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S T R AT E G I E S F O R A R R A N G I N G F O R M

Kinetic SequencingIntroducing changes in size, rotation, and interval among

elements will create the impression of movement and progression.

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T Y P O G R A P H I C C O N T R A S T

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Legibility

Readibility

Type color

Page color

Margins/Measure

Alignment

Leading

Letterspace

Space after/before elements

Terms you should know:

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Carl Dair, 7 Types of Typographic Contrast (1968)

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Size“A simple but dramatic contrast of size,” says Dair, “provides a point to which the reader’s attention is drawn. Set in the same

style of type, it maintains the exact relationship of the letter to the background. It is only a physical enlargement of the basic pattern created by the form and the weight of the type being used for the

text.”

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John Baskerville, title page for Vergil’s Bucolica, Georgica, et Aeneis (Pastorials, Farming, and Aeneis), 1757.

Baskerville reduced the design to letterforms symmetrically arranged and letterspaced; he reduced content to author, title, publisher, date, and city of publication. Economy, simplicity, and elegance resulted.

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Weight"Not only types of varying weight, but other typographic material such as rules, spots, squares, etc., can be called into service to provide a heavy area for a powerful point of visual attraction or

emphasis."

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FormBy "form," Dair means the distinction between a capital letter and its

lowercase equivalent, or a roman letter and its italic variant. He includes condensed and expanded versions under "form," and he even allows as how "there are some script types which harmonize with standard types, such as the Bank Script and Bodoni on the opposite page, and can be

used for dramatic change of form."

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Pierre Simon Fournier le Jeune, pages from Manuel Typographique, 1764 and 1768. In addition to showing the design accomplishments of a lifetime, Fournier’s type manual is a masterwork of rococo design.

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Structure"The use of contrast of structure may be compared to an orator who

changes his voice not to increase or decrease the volume, but to change the very quality of his voice to suit his words."

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TexturePut all these things together, and apply them to a block of text on a

page, and you come to the contrast of texture: the way the lines of type look as a mass, which depends partly on the letterforms themselves and

partly on how they're arranged. "Like threads in cloth," says Dair, "types form the fabric of our daily communication."

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ColorDair's sixth contrast is color -- and he warns that a second color is

usually less emphatic than plain black on white (or white on black), so it's important to give careful thought to which element needs to be

emphasized, and to pay attention to the tonal values of the colors used.

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DirectionThe last of Dair's seven kinds of contrast is the contrast of direction: the opposition between vertical and horizontal, and the angles in between. Turning one word on its side can have a dramatic effect on a layout. But

Dair points out that text blocks also have their vertical or horizontal aspects, and mixing wide blocks of long lines with tall columns of short

lines can also produce a contrast.

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