Designing is continually advancing and has turned to be very influential with year after year. This isn’t going away anytime soon! Many design experts agree the fact that designing trends have changed the way that one could not have imagined.

One may see the continuation of retro “designspiration” from the 50’s, 60’s to 80’s and 90’s. This consistent development is part of what makes digital techniques and trends so fascinating to designers, business owners, and Internet aficionados.

Negative Space: “Empowering Nothing.”

Now, with the improving trends of designing “Negative Space” has not turned to be negative for designers. Before elaborating it is important to discuss negative space, for those who do not know. Negative space solidifies the reputation of an illustrator or a graphic designer, via converting complex topics into clear, provocative and revealing lines that viewers may take with ease.

Negative space communicates with the brain in different way that regular designs does not. It allows making sense of a positive image. A negatively developed image or logo sets itself apart from the humdrum that can be regular, predictable designed. The negative space serves a purpose in a design. The designer may choose any color or shade that compliments or contrast with the image. Negative space or white space is the open or space left around any object. Imagine it as the breathing room that you leave around every piece of image or text on your design. This dictates how crowded or how light your overall design looks.

However, some designers use negative space in a different way. Rather than merely providing a good background for their logo design, the negative space is employed to reveal another image. Almost like an optical illusion, the negative space element of conception may not be the first thing to jump out at the viewer but once seen, it becomes an intrinsic part of the design.

For example, The Image below indicates a vase and two faces. If you see a vase, then you see the white area as the positive space. The black areas become the negative space. If you see faces, then you see the black areas as the positive space and the white area as the negative space.

Many times there is a misunderstanding that negative space can only be in black. Similarly, whitespace always does not mean that space should be in white.

Telling Stories with Negative Space

Negative space can ploy the eye. The viewer might take a moment to catch, but when s/he grabs it, they’ll appreciate the designer’s cleverness. Utilizing negative space does not mean “hidden meaning”, but it denotes exploring the concepts behind of what make a logo unique. In other words, creating hidden meaning is more about telling an interesting and compelling story. Here are some examples of what I mean.

Defining a Subject Using Negative Space

Surrounding the main subject with negative space draws extra emphasis and attracts the viewer’s attention. There’s much more to hidden meaning than just using negative space. While negative space does help to create good logos, it’s the actual concept behind it that makes the big difference, for example, FedEx, MyFonts, Sony Vaio, Nike etc.

The Importance & Usage of Negative Space

As told earlier negative space can drastically change the mood and story of an image. It act as a context, strengthen the positive emotions, emphasize the feelings of your subject whether they are romantic or aggressive. It can also add a sense of loneliness. In short, negative space conveys the message with the same feelings, emotions you want to express.

Space and Composition

Negative space has a huge impact on composition. When a design doesn’t have enough negative space, it may look crowded and complicated. The below-used image will illustrate better. It consists of a woman and a title as the design, with minimum use of negative space. It’s hard to end frequently up re-reading or skipping a line of text. This can irritate and even cause a reader to stop abruptly reading the text, which is the last thing that any designer wants.

The second photograph illustrates the better use of negative space. The woman’s photo fits the composition better. The logo is placed in the bottom right corner, giving each element plenty of room. The second image may get much more attention, and focus on the message.

It is important to note that, “adding” or “removing” of negative space effects the weight of the other elements in the image as they comprehensively become smaller or larger within the frame. That signifies that one may use negative space to balance out the composition in the picture.

Negative Space in Typography

Negative space can enhance type as well. The negative space between each line of text is called leading in typography. Leading makes type much more legible. The negative space between each line (leading) makes the text much more visible which makes easier to read. Lack of enough leading between the lines makes difficult to read the text, which may dishearten the reader. This may cause either re-reading or skip up of sentences. This can be thwarting and may prevent reader to stop abruptly reading the text, which is the last thing that any designer wants.

Designs with negative space are usually very simple, but the viewer can tell that there is more to the piece. A creative negative space design is comparatively appealing for the viewer; which gives a feeling of inclusion because they figured out a subtle hidden message or image. They enjoy feeling like they are privy to inside information, so when they see a creative use of negative space within logo or design, it sticks out in their mind. This is an extremely effective way to add appeal to your designs.

Negative Space in Photography

Creative fields like photography have significant usage of Negative Space. In photography, negative space is referred to as any space that is not used to hold a subject. There are three principles of composition in an image.

• Frame which is the border of the picture.
• Positive Space is the item on which the camera is focused.
• Negative Space is rest of the image. It is located between the positive space and the frame.

When people compose an image, they focus their primary attention on the positive space. The negative space gets little attention. This kind of approach can result in poor pictures. Correctly utilized negative space can serve two important roles:

1. It can help to tell the story of the positive space.
2. It can help to make the positive space more noticeable.

The negative space should never be allowed to overwhelm the positive space as this would lead to spoil the image. Sticking out with the positive space may help to enhance the image. This achievement is because the negative space helps to control the attention of a viewer. It does this by helping to fetch the viewer’s attention to the positive space.

The above picture is the best example which experiments with different compositions.

Negative Space in Logo Designing

Logos are critical to represent a brand. A designer will be considered creative if s/he can create a logo with an exceptional combination of graphics along with the text. A good use of negative space while designing a logo may turn to be a source of inspiration for others. The Hidden message within your logo should not only “grab” viewer’s attention, but at the same time, it’ll tell a lot about the company.

A good logo should be memorable and also communicate the idea of the business. By using negative space technique, it is possible to kill two birds with one stone! Let’s face the examples.

Trick to use Negative Space

It is not easy to create a good design at the first shot, but frankly, there are a lot of badly designed images. So here are some tips to use negative space in the images. Good design is usually simple. With one visual trick, cute gimmick you can build the best image.

Cuddle the Negative Space

Many times when a designer designs an image, s/he gets so much absorbed in the design that acts as a barrier between them and negative space. They then try to get rid of the design as early as possible. But if you want the design to be impactful, try to convey embrace and integrate that negative space.

Beginners often find this hard! Having an ample amount of negative space does not necessarily mean that designer is lazy or lacks that spark of creativity. It proves that s/he don not rely on senseless content just to make a single design look busy which is a mark of a true artist.

Use Negative Space in the Design Planning Process

When planning the design, we often focus too much on the things that are going to be in the final piece, and don’t think too much about what’s not going to be in it. They don’t pay attention to it until they get to the end point. This is where problems begin.

Think about what usage of negative space early. So that you when you sum up the design you don’t have to think much about it. Make it an important and intentional part of the design planning process.

Include Negative Space by Replacing Some of the Positive Space

In designs that demand a lot of negative space, designers should end up thinking about how they can add more negative space to an existing image. But make sure to keep it simple.

Just try to change the set of mind. Instead of thinking what to add? Think of what to remove? Think about how to minimize the positive space and maximize the negative space. Keep this in mind.

Do not Restrict Yourself to Black or White

Always keep it in mind that when you think about negative space, it’s not all about black or white. It could be of any color. To add drama to your design use other colors if required.

Don’t be afraid to use a different color. If it’s the best way to add drama to the design, don’t restrict yourself from doing it. After all the use of negative space only depends on the designer’s understanding of human nature. You have to learn how people catches the surroundings with eyes, so learn to play tricks with their eyes. There are no solid rules to be followed, and it all depends on how bold you want to be.

Lastly, don’t avoid spacing.

Wrapping up!

Negative space, as mentioned several times throughout this article, both unclutters design and helps mold and draw focus to the content on the page. The techniques and trends prominent today demonstrate how far web design has come in the 21st century. Apart from White/negative space, retina support, single page sites, circular elements, CSS3 and app-style interfaces are few other innovative, engaging concepts that have been popping up on in recent years.