Whitespace is nothing.

White space, despite it’s name, has nothing to do with colour. Whitespace is elegant, whitespace is excess, whitespace is nothing.

Whitespace is the space between graphics, margins, space between columns, space between lines of type or figures and objects. But whitespace is not just ‘blank’ space; this balance of negative and positive space is key to design. Content needs room to breath, otherwise it appears crowded, feels cramped and can even strain the eye. Too much whitespace though, can make the design seem incomplete. 

The proper amount of whitespace depends on the application. Giving content plenty of whitespace gives a rich luxurious feeling, and can draw the readers attention in otherwise crowded layouts. However, less breathing room for elements can be used to brand lower class items, differentiating them from luxury items.  It takes a good eye and plenty of practice to determine how much is too little or too much, but practice makes perfect.
After all, whitespace is everything. Filling up every nook and cranny above the fold with information isn’t ideal unless your a classifieds section or the yellow pages.  Take a look at some of the more high end brands, and popular minimalist designs, examine the whitespace, and go from there.

Written by John Leschinski from Leschinski Design
Posted on October 13th, 2007 and filed under Design & Coding
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