How can you design with nothing?

Published 5 February 2008

Also in this issue: guest contribution | alice's actions

King Lear said to his daughter Cordelia: ‘Nothing can come of nothing, try again’, but he was wrong. The use of nothing, or white space, in graphic design can make all the difference to something that ‘looks good’ or appears to be cluttered, jumbled or ‘out of sorts’.

White space is the absence of text or graphics. This refers to the space between the sentences or the lines of type, the area between columns and width of margins, and how text wraps itself around pictures. Its purpose is to provide visual breathing spaces, break up density and reduce cramped design.

Most of the time white space is used subtly without the reader knowing. Good use of white space usually goes unnoticed and only bad presentations will receive comments, as that is when the eye perceives something is wrong. Although it benefits from consistency and accurate symmetry, not all measured instructions ensure good practice. Too much or badly placed gaps in design will confuse the reader, deflect from its purpose and loose control of the design through poor eye navigation.

The next newsletter will describe how to eliminate ‘grey pages’ and effectively use the space on the page; and the following newsletter will explore how white space contributes towards legibility and readability. Meanwhile, scrutinise the accompanying image (as well as the rest of my website) for examples of white space.

Guest Contribution

Imagine a world without copywriters...

Part 1: How a copywriter benefits a new business

OK, imagine the scenario. You are a new business with a really good product or service that you want to sell. You have everything in place: nice stationery, a really good website and adverts ready to go. You’ve also written your own copy – after all, who knows your business better than you do?

You start marketing your business, sending out your postcards, placing adverts in your chosen press and getting your website listed in as many directories as possible. But as time goes on your conversion rate is not going as well as you’d hoped. What can be wrong, you ask?

So you contact a third person for help – a copywriter, someone who knows how to play around with words to make them leap off the page and grab the attention of potential customers. The copywriter can see the problem: the words aren’t working. They need more get up and go, more buzz, more passion. They need to move the reader to pick up the phone and say YES I really want to buy from YOU!

The copywriter goes away and rewrites all the copy until it’s clearer and exciting. Only then the clients start to trickle in...

Being new to business is scary and you don’t always have the budget or time to do absolutely everything. But by using a copywriter you can rest assured your literature will sell, leaving you to get on with your business.

You can find out more about copywriters from Fiona Seymour-Jesse via www.sjcopy.co.uk, or you can email fiona@sjcopy.co.uk or phone 01244 301065. Remember I will work to your requirements, whatever they are!

Alice's Actions #12

What White Space?

Either examine your own printed material or any other publications to explore white space. Can you recognise it? Where do you think is it used? How many different kinds can you find?

Have you ever considered the unprinted areas of a design before? Do you think they are important? Can you imagine a design without white space? How about too much? What effect would it have? And what else would it affect?

If you want to know more, go ask Alice! Alternatively, wait until the next newsletter...