Active & Empty Space
The space that is used to make up a poster, book jacket, food packaging and so much more are so important and can be used in may different ways. When a page for example is too empty people will find it boring, and if you have a page that’s too busy, people will not stop to read it. Space is very useful but readability is also super important. On a page you want the information to catch their attention without being something too wordy. There are many different types of space used, but the two main ones are empty, and active space. These are defined similarly to their names. Empty space tends to be empty and usually a solid background. Empty space in a design is the part of the design that is not the main focus and there for is not used. Empty space is useful through because it allows the viewer to have a more comforting experience by surrounding the active space. Empty space not only allows us to focus on the active space but allows us to not get overwhelmed as well. Active space on the other hand, is the space on a page where the design is being used and is showcased. Active space is what should be the focus of whatever you’re looking at. Active space can contain letters, words, pictures, symbols, and anything else what will fill the space to make it active. When active space and empty space come together it creates a beautiful thing. The empty space is able to get the attention of the person with the splash of color while drawing their eye towards the active space, this gives the illusion that the design is easier to read and process.
One great example of a design using active and empty space is the World Wildlife Fund logo. The amazing thing about this logo is that the actual shape of the panda is made up of empty space. The actual shapes in that active space do not have any significance on their own, it is the empty space combined with the active that is able to create the adorable panda. When you look at the empty space under the panda it does nothing because the active space shows WWF which is the abbreviation for the World Wildlife Fund. I think it’s so cool to see how both active and empty space are able to create this famous logo.
