Maybe you've never wondered this, but there is a reason I call this blog white space. I'll get into why more in a bit. But first, this post stems from the AIGA portfolio review I attended over the weekend. It was a great experience and I received a lot of great criticism and comments. One of the ones that stood out the most to me was one about my style. I was showing a series of highly textured and stylized book covers (see archives) along side some of my branding concepts (again see archives) and a reviewer commented that he thought I was trying too hard. He saw more thought and intention in the ideas that were more minimal than the ones of excessive visual flair. This came as a shock to me.

At times I find myself consciously, and subconsciously, running away from my natural design tendencies and ideas of a tight, controlled, and well placed design. And running away from, ironically, white space.

White space is probably my favorite element to use intentionally and manipulate within a design. It creates a much more sophisticated and elegant look (see apple.com, nytimes.com).

It helps focus attention on what you really want the viewer to see and understand. I can't tell you why I avoid it sometimes but it is something I really want to embrace moving forward as a part of how I think and who I am as a designer.

Here are a few examples of work (not mine) that I feel use white space to enhance the design.

[slideshow]