Kyle Morden | Designer

In design, white space isn’t just unnecessary waste — it has a purpose. If used correctly, it will provide elements to ensure satisfaction to any viewer. It’s a simple and powerful tool that can be misunderstood by many.

As a student designer, going to the College Media Mega Workshop — hosted by the Associated Collegiate Press and held on July 11–14, 2019 to provide hands-on media training for college students — has given me a better understanding about design. Ron Johnson, a long-time contributor to the Society for News Design, explained to students at the workshop that white space “empowers adjacent elements, so use it to frame your lead package.” Therefore, designers use white space to captivate viewers. It’s something that every design should have to provide quality content.

For those who don’t have design experience, or don’t know much about utilizing white space, white space is more than the color white; it can be any color or background image. There’s two types of white space: micro and macro. Micro white space is the spacing between lines and paragraphs. Macro white space is the large amounts of space often found around the margins of books and websites. Together, they balance and organize content to provide positive experiences for viewers. However, for those who are unaware of this balance white space creates, it can come off as awkward and unclear.

Often times, white space cause problems between clients and designers. Clients may think that it’s a waste of space and that there should be other visual elements. They might say that it looks bland and useless. They might even ask to redo the entire job completely. Here’s what I think: remember why you hired a professional, and let designers do their thing.

Design isn’t about shoving large chunks of information into the viewers’ brains — that’s boring and cruel. Do you ever wonder why there’s white space around groups of text? Imagine reading a book that has text filling to the edge of the page. There would be so much clutter that it’d be hard to focus and retain information — everyone would hate reading. White space allows us to breath and be calm. It brings forth simplicity and keeps our attention to the content.

Not only that, white space can create powerful messages. On Jan. 10, 2013, The New York Times published a blank cover page followed by a headline that said “And the inductees are…” A clear and powerful message that translates to the denied induction of players into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I understand that there are times when white space is used incorrectly. And, that it does look bland when there’s too much of it. Designers can solve this problem by readjusting their eyes. To do this, they can take their eyes off the screen then look back. They can then notice the first thing their eyes point to and ask if it supports the content. If it doesn’t, they’ll have to keep working until their satisfied.

So yes, white space is more than just emptiness. It provides balance and harmony; enhancing the content. Our goal as designers is to create simple designs that will deliver information to you as clear as possible. Because we don’t need more clutter in our lives.

Contact the author at kmorden17@wou.edu