An Exploration of Space
From ADV Magazine and ADVMag.com
By Rich Carango

When most people think of visual elements on a page, they usually think of – okay, let’s be realistic – most people never think about visual elements on a page. Even though the average person is bombarded with thousands of designed images a day, few people have time to stop and analyze what they are seeing. But if you tried to list the things that make up a design, you would probably come up with the following: words, pictures and colors.

Okay. Fair enough. That’s not a bad list. But it does leave out one crucial element of every design – space. It sounds strange, I realize. Space seems more like “nothing-ness” than an element. Actually, space in design is as real and just as necessary as the pauses you take when you speak. The controlled use of space lets a designer manipulate the emphasis of one element over another, much in the same way pauses and inflections give emphasis to spoken words.

But if you didn’t include space in your list of graphic elements, don’t be too hard on yourself. Space is perhaps the simplest and the most difficult concept for human beings to grasp. It is all around us, so we can easily identify it, yet it is difficult to describe visually. Even though we all observe the world in perfect perspective, it takes a trained artist to accurately render “reality” on paper in two dimensions.

When graphic designers talk about space, they are usually talking about the actual composition area of a page – how all the elements are organized.

Space as in composition

Controlling composition, and therefore space, is very important to a designer. Unlike a fine artist who can leave his work open to interpretation, a designer must deliver a clear message. It is the designer’s job to direct the reader’s eye through the page, attracting appropriate attention to certain elements at the appropriate time. For example, most ads have a main graphic supported by a headline which may be, in turn, supported by a sub-head. It is important that a reader sees the graphic first, then read the headline followed by the sub-head. If those elements are processed in any other sequence, they may not clearly communicate the intended message.

In Western cultures, written language is organized on a page so that we read left to right, and top to bottom. Consequently, images on a page are processed the same way. Often times, a designer can take advantage of this cultural norm to dictate the order in which graphic elements are processed. But there are also many other organizational strategies in an artist’s bag of tricks that can be used to manipulate space and lead the reader’s eye.

Centrality dictates that the most important element in a design is placed in the center of the page, surrounded by the lesser elements. Another name for this style is Enclosure, because the main object can be described as being enclosed by the other elements.

Symmetry is a way of achieving balance on a page by placing similar forms on opposite ends of the design. A balanced design creates a comfortable space that invites the reader to come in and take a look around. This style works well for pieces that need to be conservative, formal or classy.

Asymmetry is the counter-style to symmetry and can really shake up a design. This style leads the eye to jump from one image to the other by placing unlike objects opposite one another or by leaving unequal space around a main object. “Unbalanced” design creates very active space and is ideal to show movement, excitement, or even violence.

Hierarchic Scaling is the practice of making the most important object the largest on the page, the second most important object the second largest, and so on. Hierarchic Placement takes advantage of our “right-to-left, top-to-bottom” norm, and arranges the elements on a page in descending order of importance from the top of the page to the bottom. Hierarchic Scaling and Placement are both very common and very effective spatial manipulators.

Color Manipulation allows a designer to lead the eye through a design by using color. Intense areas of color attract immediate attention even when placed at the bottom and right side of a page (where we usually look last). Also, a designer can create the illusion of depth by using a combination of hot and cool colors. Hot colors such as reds, oranges and yellows jump off the page. Cool colors like blues and purples appear to move to the back.

Ever-present, yet usually overlooked, space is a designer’s best friend. So, next time you are browsing through a magazine and scanning the ads, pay attention to how the space leads your eye. Take a closer look at just a few of those thousands of images that pass by every day…explore space a little.

© 1999 Rich Carango. All rights reserved Schubert Communications

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