First Draft

The Role of Empty Space in Typography


1. Introduction

People read some materials in newspapers, magazines, Internet, books, advertisements in their daily lives. Those reading materials have various visualizations that are depending on several elements such as sizes of papers, layouts, colors and typefaces. Those help people to read and understand easily. However, when people read some materials, usually they concentrate to follow contents and it is not easy to notice about those elements. Empty space is not also easy to know. However, the empty space is importance in legibility, variety, and aesthetic in typography.

Boulton (2007) defined “whitespace is empty space” (para. 1). However, the meaning of empty space is not white space because although the empty space has some color, it does not look any function it can be empty space. In typography, the empty space is between elements in composition. Through the elements, the empty space gives them legibility because the pertinent empty space in a good composition can lead readers’ eyes to follow contents comfortably and to find good points of contents easily. Thus, when they have reading materials, some made them readability. Donald points out its importance; “Lack of white space is as tiresome as the party blabbermouth. [On the other hand,] margins and white space beckon the reader in” (as cited in White, 2002, p29). Furthermore, the appropriate empty space in composition can create aesthetic. Also, Boulton (2007) point out more empty space is luxury and less empty space is cheap (para. 4). It explains relationship between empty space and the value of aesthetic. Having more empty space will look like high quality artwork and marvelously, this concept related with a canon of East aesthetic especially Korea.


2. Empty space with legibility and variety
- Empty space and elements in a composition

The composition between elements and empty space is important in typography. The elements are the space between words, between text columns, between paragraphs, between lines, and between characters. White (2002) explained detailed that “The rules must be clear in both the use of white space and in the placement of elements in the white space. The use of too little white space results in an overfull page. On the other hand, the use too much white space makes a page or spread look incomplete, as if elements have slid off the page” (p. 23). It explains that lack of empty space can make to read difficult as overlapping or connecting between letters or lines and paragraphs or columns and on the other hand the overfull empty space, wasted space, can make people’s eyes lose to follow direction. As the appropriate empty space only makes legibility, typographers always consider about the propriety. Sometimes to give more knowledge, typographers need to reduce the amount of empty space but without the minimum of empty space nobody try to read.
Using empty space in composition of content makes variety and legibility. Although it is the same content, it looks different and easy to understand as the amount of empty space. In this examples have same contents but those have different amount of white space. White (2002) explained abut Tschichold’s poster cards designed by concentrating symmetrical style of typography. Tschichold described about those two examples like that “The content has been refitted to a symmetrical format to show how white space added quality to the communication.” (as cited in White, p,29).

In the logo design, to focus on empty space is more important because it can be make more variety. The empty space can make people focus on some logos or some massage which is companies want to impact and communicate with people. Here is a good example to show the successful logo that becomes famous to use empty space between letters. The FedEx logo shows how using empty space can impact to people. The FedEx logo designer, Leader (2004), used the “hidden” space between a capital “E” and a lower-case “x” to create arrow. It becomes small change of a view from concentrating letter design to observing the empty space. He realized the empty space and then chose the typeface to create perfect arrow well (para 7 ~9.).

3. Empty space speaks itself
- Less empty space = cheap; more empty space = luxury

In the advertising of typography like posters, the empty space is important to make look expensive. Boulton (2007) explain “designers use whitespace to create a feeling of sophistication and elegance for upscale brands.” “...use extensive whitespace in their marketing material to tell the reader that they are sophisticated, high quality, and generally expensive (para 4.). When advertising in settled space, some companies decided the most important information to make observation with empty space. Others just concentrate to give much information to reader with full space. However, White (2002) points out how it works in advertisement that companies want to get large space in newspapers to advertise and then they leaved empty space because they believe “empty speaks even more highly of the company’s success”(p. 29). This concept of empty space is similar with the meaning of empty space in oriental. According to Kim (2001) “the blank space, oneself, is not a just hollow one and it can be said that the blank space manifests the formation of a picture and the inner world of the painter through the formative consciousness like the essential elements of a picture” (p. II). It is that the empty space gives people opportunity to interpret their own imagination about the empty space plentifully. It will be same idea between western and oriental.

Those are posters designed by America and Korea. Two posters do not have many words. The left poster has the words “Amantes Amentes Films” with some information and the right poster has oriental painting with Chinese character and Korean character. The layout of posters is different but using empty space and posters’ edges is similar. It is same that empty in the enter posters and the left poster used edges of top and bottom and the right poster used edge of right side. Those give an opportunity to audiences to understand empty space themselves. Also, making empty space a lot in commercial posters, it represents the wealth because they have to give up the chance of to use more colors, information, and visual impact instead of creating the empty space.

4. Conclusion

The empty space can be white space and blank space as different expression. The empty space is nothing but it has function. The empty space creates different view of composition with same contents and makes variety and legibility. Focusing to design empty space makes fresh and successful result like the white arrow of FedEx logo. In addition, in advertising, empty space makes luxurious visual effect with more space which makes people have their own interpretation and less words which are the most important. It will give impact people to keep the ideas longer than designed full space.

Empty space should consider with full space because filled the limited space on papers that are given opportunities typographers to express a lot of ideas and information. The role of various elements in typography are important as well as the empty space but sometimes they are given up by the empty space because they should think about the role of empty space.

References

Boulton. M. (2007 Jan. 09). Whitespace. Retrieved May 31, 2007, from
http://alistapart.com/articles/whitespace

Kim. D.W. (2001. Oct.) The Spirit of Blank Space and the Formative Consideration in
the oriental Painting. Korea: National Assembly Library

Leader. L. (2004 Nov. 16). The Man Behind the FedEx Logo. Retrieved June 14, 2007,
from http://www.thesneeze.c om/mt-archives/000273.php

White. A. W. (2002). The Elements of Graphic Design. New York; Allworth Press.
p23~29

Retrieved June 14, 2007, from http://www.chihwaseon.com