White Space - It’s so underrated
Posted: October 24, 2008 at 4.00 pmWRITTEN BY in Design
White Space. Or lack of.
White Space. It’s so underrated. We nearly always assume more is more.
Ah. Frankly, it’s all overrated noise. The human mind doesn’t take it all in anyway, we scan it, we zip over it, another flashing banner, another advert, another pulsating ’sign here’ banner. Scanning the first page of a loaded blog usually means I’m scanning for the exit button to get the hell out. Maybe I just get overwhelmed easily, but with so many ‘loaded’ websites one can look the same as the rest. Shame, as I feel there are some good posts and blogs under all that external make-up.
It’s not for everyone for sure, if you rely on advertising revenue, and you don’t care a diddly for design or aesthetics, then you probably don’t want to waste all that valuable real estate. But if your message is important, and you rely on your content your writing to send a message, then consider the less is really less options. Not more is more. Not less is more or more or less. Mixing it up with all manner or images and video’s can turn off a lot of people, equally ofcourse it can be a huge turn on.
But I guess I am aiming this at the confident designer or blogger, who is trying to get a simple or important message across, focus on content using design to enhance rather than to distract.
Space can be your friend. Use it to create natural boundaries around your important items. White Space allows the eyes to focus and see what needs to be seen. A busy tight page is a nightmare for most people, so why should yours be the same? We all appreciate some space. Space to see and focus. Your readers will be thankful in a subconscious way. We notice it when things are bad, but when things are running optimally, we don’t really stop and think because the site is working as it should. That’s good.
Trust your design and your content. That will do all the selling you need. Unless you are in the market for big fancy graphics, then I guess this post is not so relevant, I’m not trying to be the voice for all, just voicing an opinion for certain aspects of design and communication.
Trust your content and really believe that less can be a whole lot less without it being more. White space can be your friend. It doesn’t always translate that you are a boring designer, it often means you are a designer who knows what works, and trusts his own instincts, and doesn’t try to get peer approval for having the best freak’n graphics and buttons.
Its not easy to be meticulous with a website. Lining up paragraphs so the type all lines up nicely as you would for printed brochures is hard, but not impossible. But the next best thing is just to open things up a bit. Spread yourself out if you can. Let the content shine through rather than being buried alive.
My design experience IS typographic, grids, form and structure. Over 16 years with Macs and traditional typesetting, even manual past-up with bromide strips, wax and cardboard grids. I have spent the vast majority of my working life squaring things up, making type look nice and all that relevant stuff. So it’s in me genes you could say.
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Dude, everything you said is right on, and by the way this site looks nothing like anything I’ve ever seen before. How is it that you are so creative?
Does the same apply to ‘dark’ space ?
:)
I met a sibling all of a sudden! I subscribe everything you said! Content FTW. Design and whitespace in it enhances content if done the right way.
Congratulations! We think alike pretty much, the difference might be that I’m 21 and already advocate such principles ;D
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Nice post; all true of course, just because you have a bit of space on your page it doesn’t mean you need to fill it with something!
Design is always a balance, a carefully orchestrated symphony of layout, colour and space.
Visiting a site should be a pleasing experience, with minimal distractions and the content thoughtfully placed.
Graham, I think you’ve said it all.
White Space - It’s so underrated | ImJustCreative is Graham Smith…
White Space. Or lack of.
White Space. It’s so underrated. We nearly always assume more is more….
“Genes”. Type can’t look nice if it’s a typo.
Very good advice, I completely agree– and as a designer, simplicity is still the way I think things look best. :D
@Mark, I am pretty sure Graham *meant* to type it that way. Clearly he didn’t get it from his parents.
Martin sent me here and your white space is gorgeous. I’ve strayed from the path I’m afraid but you’ve inspired me to completely redesign again. (I gather screen clutter over time.)
Just wish I could find a lovely simple Blogger 2-column template with tons of space!
Mark> It was true, it is just a play on words, jeans is correct. It’s my insance lack of humour. It’s funny to me, most other people get upset.:)
TINA>
Wish I could help you with the Blogger theme, but I just don’t know it to be able to point you in the right direction, but thanks for popping by. :)
LUKE>
Simplicity I think is often mistook for boring or unskilled, but that so is not the case, in the majority of cases ofcourse.
JOSE>
Glad to see you are passionate about it, it’s not just a personal preference this whole space, clean, room to breath perspective, it really is a USABILITY issue, and should really be treated with more passion, just as coders do with the layout and formatting of their CSS code.
ANDY>
I guess it would, hadn’t really thought about the ‘black space scenario’, other than it look, ermm ,black and not white. I think there are perceptual difference with white space and black space as a colour over the phrase white space to just mean ’space’ in general. Good point though. So does this mean we are discrimination against Black Space, or whatever Colour empty space we use? Bah.
MARTIN>
Actually, I havn’t said nearly enough about it, and I guess you don’t really want to put yourself or others in that position. Took me ages to edit, re-edit and edit that post to keep it a reasonable size. Blah.
This entry strikes me as incredibly hypocritical alongside a logo that reads “imjustcreative” and an intro that reads “ImJustCreative is Graham SmithFreelance”.
Also, you should consider how ridiculously you contradict yourself by typing “My history IS typographic”. One of the very first things they teach you in typography class is that misusing capitals for emphasis is a heinous crime. Especially if you have proper tools at your disposal, such as the emphasis tag.
A professional typographer would never use a hyphen instead of a dash, either. You should be ashamed.
“Its not easy to be meticulous” is just pure comedy gold. Indeed, “its” not.
While we’re at it, learn to spell “videos” and “of course”.
I wouldn’t sound anywhere as harsh if this was an entry about Pokémon written by an eight-year old. But if you’re going to write about typography and brag about decades of experience, meticulosity, and whatnot, then you better live up to it.
Thanks for this post. As the sole senior designer in an office of over 100 non-creative financial brokers for over ten years, I cannot tell you what a chore it was to convince internal clients on a nearly daily basis that negative space was their friend, not their foe. You also touch on one of my other favorite design mantras: content is king. So true.
Awesome piece!
Great post Graham!
I have thought that when a design has “white space” or is simple/minimalistic it can be used to draw attention to the site’s content… especially in the case of a portfolio for a photographer, or designer.
Schwallex> Wow, easy tiger.
I never claimed to be an expert at grammar or spelling.
In fact I struggled academically, especially in Maths and English with early years learning difficulties.
I don’t brag. I am proud about my experience. Two very different things.
So yes, I do struggle to be taken seriously by the likes of hot headed people as yourself. Who don’t stop for one moment to consider that there maybe other reasons why ‘this person’ has not lived up to ‘your’ perfect views on the world.
ImJustCreative is me, and frankly your outburst is really quite offensive and not at all constructive.
It is YOU that should be ashamed to leave such a rude and hypocritical message.
I am sure you are perfect at everything you do in life, hat’s off to you. Just don’t ‘down’ people who have to work very hard to meet the expectations of people like you.
To include threats in a post comment is just incredible, talk about shaming yourself.
Schwallex> Im used to people like you, the legal profession is of self righteous, taking the higher moral ground types.
So I used a dash, it’s a freakn post, not an award winning Typographic entry. It’s the content, which is what this post is mostly about if you had bothered to really take it in, rather than surface skim it for imperfections.
Man, you have serious anger management issues.
Take a chill pill.
Good post. Interesting comments.
Personally, I prefer the term “negative space” or even “empty space” because it has little to do with color (e.g. “white space” which isn’t always white). We’ve been using it at work more frequently lately to help us present data rich screens in a more organized and easily readable way rather than add an additional visual element to achieve the same effect.
white space is like silence - i love it but it makes many uncomfortable. Face what makes you uncomfortable.
Beautiful - but you know that………
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