Graphic Design Theory - Space

1. Introduction: A graphic designer, most of the designs you work on will end up being flat. Not in the sense that they won't look good, but in the literal sense. They will be printed on sheets of paper, fabric, or displayed on flat screens of TVs, monitors, and mobile devices. So you might be wondering, how can we even talk about space without three dimensions, but we can. Besides the width and height of your artwork, to create compelling designs, you will also need to imply depth. In this course, we will cover overlap, overlay, perspective, negative space, proximity, shape, form, and everything else that can help you to make your designs inviting, engaging, and spacious. We will also analyze hundreds of amazing designs from all areas of graphic design to help you easily visualize and understand all the terms and rules that are covered in this course. Together with the exciting class project that I hope you will complete at the end of the course, you also have the analysis worksheet and the term glossary to help you practice everything that you've learned. I hope you are just as excited as I am to get started and dive into the sea of knowledge and beautiful graphic design examples. 2. Space: Spaces like a commodity in graphic design, similarly to buying a plot of land and then have your house built on it. As a graphic designer, you get a canvas with a specific orientation and aspect ratio. And it is up to you how you fill it up with the elements that you will be using in your composition. When you have a lot of information that you need to display on a single page, for instance, in a magazine or on a single page on a website. You will have to work out how to balance everything, making sure that your design will end up looking cluttered, confusing, and it can be similarly challenging if you don't have a lot of elements to use in InDesign, you might feel that your design will end up looking empty and unprofessional. It is a very common mistake amongst designers who are just starting out that the pack too much things into a design that they tried to fill all the available space with elements, not leaving any negative space. And that's also an important term we will be discussing in much more detail. But generally, we consider any elements that you place in your design positive space, while anything that's left empty, even if it's not completely white, we would consider a negative space, or sometimes we also refer to it as whitespace. In especially when we talk about print design, where white is obviously the color of the paper. In the next couple of videos, we will dive deeper and learn about all the various design principles and methods that you can use to improve the space in your compositions. But first in this video, there's a couple of important general terms about space that I would like to discuss and also show you some creative examples of these rules in action. So normally, when we will talk about space, we refer to a volume that has height, width, but also depth. But there is a contradiction here because as a graphic designer, almost all the time, you would work in two-dimensional planes. So whether it's a printed page or a screen, It's always just width and height. However, there are many different ways and methods that you can imply the depth in your design and make it look more three-dimensional. And that is crucial because you want your viewers to feel like they can enter that space that you create on your canvas. You want to draw them into your compositions and you want to keep them there for as long as possible by making your design engaging and captivating. Let's take a look at a couple of techniques to imply depth or space. First of all, you can use size. Here we have two great examples of this, the oceans eight poster and the Barnes Foundation logo by pentagram. In both of these examples, we can see that whatever appears to be larger in scale feels closer to us. This is a simple fact that we see in real life as well. Wherever there is perspective, things that are further in the distance are getting smaller. That is, for instance, why these two kayaks here in the foreground of this illustration are almost the same size as this mountain in the background. Or they take up the same amount of space within the composition. But we know from experience that there is perspective here and that mountain in the background is actually they bigger than these two coyotes in the foreground? But returning back to these two examples here on the right, the person on the left, which I believe is Sandra Bullock, is the closest to us. So that's why she appears to be the tallest by this person here on the right, appears to be the shortest, but of course, we understand it immediately that she is further back in space. The same thing is happening here with the Barnes Foundation logo, where the main word mark on the top is divided into these five rectangular shapes. And some of them are larger than the others. And immediately the ones that are smaller feel like they're further back in space. And this is actually intentional because these five shapes supposed to represent the structure of the Barnes Foundation building. This is a great example of many other design principles also in use like negative space, but also alternating rhythm, where we have larger and smaller shapes alternating each other and many other principles like simplicity, framing, and consistency. Another common technique to imply space or depth in your composition is to rely on the intensity of colors. And it means that more vibrant, saturated colors and especially warm colors, tend to be closer to us or feel closer to us. Compare two colors with less intensity and more cooler tones. This has also something to do with the physical world and how we learn to see things like landscapes where we have a lot of distance that we can see all at once. And there is a term called atmospheric perspective, which we will also be talking about in more detail once we get to talk about perspective. But essentially what it means is that the further away something is, the more cooler and washed out its colors get due to the sheer volume of air or sky between us and that object. So to simplify what I just said, the further away something gets, the more it starts to mix together with whatever the color of the sky is. And we can see this in action here on the illustration where the foreground colors are darker, more saturated and warmer while we are getting more washed out, these saturated colors appearing further in the background and they are also getting more closer to the colors in the sky. But even on this design here, we can see that space is implied by having the more vibrant and saturated colors in the foreground or the front of this cylindrical shape. While we are having softer and more washed out colors on the back of these ribbons forming the cylinder. 3. Techniques to utilise space in design: A very powerful and straightforward method of implying space and especially depth, is to use overlapping between shapes, like in this case, we can immediately see that this leaf is most likely the closest to us, while the person here is the furthest away. So by layering things on top of each other and indicating depth with subtle drop shadows or out of bounds effects, we can quickly and effectively established depth. And the same technique can be achieved, of course, even without using drop shadows. In this case, we have an overlap going on between the type and the image. So this letter feels like it's behind the image. By this one, for instance, is in front of it. And even just by relying on the appearance of these two letters from the title, the designer managed to already create an interesting composition. But besides of us, the viewers experiencing depth, we also have to work a little bit harder compared to having this adventure title written in a single line placed on top of an image that would be so much more boring than what we can see here. This cover of the stylish magazine is also a great example of implying depth. Having this athlete jumping over the masthead. But besides the depth here, we also imply height by having a lot of empty or negative space here in the middle. So that immediately makes this feel much higher than if the center part of the composition was filled with text or images. And most likely the reason why they decided not to make this text bigger than what it appears at the moment, is that because there is another thing that can help to imply space. Wherever you place, closer to the top of your frame always feels slightly further away than whatever is at the bottom. Now this comes back to again how we see landscapes. Usually whatever is at the bottom is closer to us. That's the foreground. And as we go further up in the composition or frame, we would see things that are further away. Just remember the illustration with the kayaks in the foreground and the mountains in the back. So even though there is no indication whether these texts here at the bottom is closer or further away compared to what we see here on the top. And even though the details are on the top, seem larger than what we have at the bottom due to the positioning of the flying high text at the bottom, still feels like it is in the foreground. I believe that is why it wasn't necessary to make that any larger than what it is at the moment. This poster is also confidently using this understanding that wherever it is closer to the top fuels further away. But of course it also relies on perspective. So we can see that parallel lines are all leading to a vanishing point in the distance. And you can probably imagine that it would feel weird if it was the opposite shape, having the texts on the top feel closer to us and then the rest going back further in space, it could still work. It would just not feel as balanced and as natural as what we have on this poster. There is also another important way to categorize space or think about space whenever you are designing, you can create open or closed spaces. And each of these will have an important effect on how your design is perceived by our viewers. Open spaces are usually more inviting. Why closed spaces can contain and hold information together more rigidly. There are a couple of great examples of open space being used on this board, like the Utah Arches National Park and the Zurich, Switzerland composition, where the floating letters, having just a very subtle drop shadow, establish a big open whitespace which is completely border less. So it feels like we can enter this space from any direction. While here with the New York Magazine, we have a very strong boundary, this frame which closes everything up, creating this enclosed space. So don't think that this is less inviting or engaging to look at, but it's definitely set a different tone of visual communication. Another example where we have these very rigid frames holding and grouping the tax and most of the illustration together, the overall composition still doesn't feel too close because of the small details that are coming out of the frames. Like this person here, the birds flying across these frames and even this plant here coming out on the right side. So in this case, this overlapping or out-of-bounds out of frame effect really helps to open up the composition that would have ended up being much more closed without them. And last but not least, another term worth mentioning is Fengshui, which actually is used for interior design and the arrangements of furniture in the space. I also like to think of it as something that can be used for compositions in graphic design, which states that every object in space exists in relation to each other and to their environment. And this is a perfect explanation how you need to think of space in your compositions. Whatever you place on your canvas or whatever you leave out will have an effect on all the components that you are working with. 4. Depth : In the previous video, we already established how important it is to establish depth in your compositions because that is the missing property that we don't have in a two-dimensional plane whenever our work is going to appear on a piece of paper or a screen. So while our Canvas will always have height and width, we wouldn't have the depth. So that is something we can only imply. And even though we already learned a couple of ways of doing this, now in this video, we will look at a couple of additional creative examples and methods that's worth discussing and remembering whenever you have to create depth in your own compositions. So let's start with something very simple. This isometric view of a cube, which can also be referred to as the Necker cube, which is a great example of multi stability, where we can decide whether we are looking at the front of this object here or here on the top. So if you consider this part here to be closer to us, then that means that we are looking at this cube from below. While if we consider this to be closer to us, it feels like we are looking at the cube from above. This is something that we covered in much more detail in the psychology of design section when we go through or the Gestalt principles. But the reason I'm showing it here as well is because it's a very common way that we represent depth in illustration. And we will see more isometric drawings later on. But for now, what I wanted to draw attention to is even though we established depth in this composition, it is still not clear what's closer and further away from us. And that is due to the lack of visual information. Now once you start introducing field shapes, colors, and gradients are shading. Understanding volume and depth becomes much easier. So here, no one will be struggling to understand that these details are the closest to us, while this detail here is the furthest away. But even when you are using colours and shading, sometimes you might still confuse your viewers, whether intentionally or not. So, for instance, imagine just looking at this little section here. And when you see this on its own, you might actually see a cube that's upside down, even though in the current composition, this is supposed to be an empty area. And it is clear when we look at the whole composition together. But once again, by extracting it, we can easily confuse the viewer relying on the Gestalt principle called closure. You can also create interesting designs like this one where there is no shading, only a single color, black is used. And these cone like triangular shapes are not even connected to each other. But still our mind immediately feels in that empty space in the middle. And we imagine that to be not just a circle, but an actual sphere, which once again has volume. So not only height and width, but also depth. And the main reason why we see it like that is because these spikes here are smaller that we feel like are further away from us. While the cones here on the front or larger, but also they have these elliptical shapes to them which describe that's free recall empty space. So sometimes very subtle hints like these can help your viewers to understand what you actually, even in an abstract form like this. And in case you are not good at drawing or haven't spent time studying how to draw three-dimensional forums, I highly recommend to spend some time doing just that. Because believe me, it's going to help you a lot to be able to represent depth in your compositions, even without actually relying on drawings or illustration. Now when it comes to actual compositions, showing or implying depth doesn't have to be overpowering. So you don't have to exaggerate it. And as most of the time, less is more. So the more subtle you can be, but still achieved the depth, the better. And the beautiful example of that restraint in action is this cover of the novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, where the only detail that implies depth is this small section here of the face. So instead of having more details coming out of the letter form, this already achieves that sense of depth. And this is a great choice because this is naturally going to be a focal point. We are always drawn to look at faces, even if we see them from the side. Here is a similar composition, again, portrait and a letter form combined together, but in a completely different way. Here we can see the full image and the letter V is interlocking the portray, having the side here on the left going behind the face and getting interrupted again by the lips and the chin. And then the other side of the letter, It's coming clearly in front of the body, but then again going slightly behind the head. So this action of coming from the background to the foreground and then again going back into the background creates an amazing sense of depth. But again, like before, in a very subtle way. 5. Curves, Lines and Shadows : I also love this example where we have this thick white curvy line interlocking, again, the model in the composition. And I'm showing this again for its subtlety because even though we have a very subtle drop shadow here on this area, which helps to separate this curve from the curve behind it. We still don't have further indication whether this curve or that curve is closer or further away from us. And the reason why that wasn't necessary is because of another Gestalt principle being in use called continuity, which states that the viewer will be able to continue details even when they are not completely visible. So we can follow along this shape, which clearly is the closest to us because it is in front of the model and then it goes behind the person. But we can immediately connect it to this other section here. So if we trace it along, we will be able to tell that this section continues here and then goes further away. And most likely, since this shape is starting in the foreground and going further back in space than this section would be closer to us and the other shape would go underneath it. So if there were shading, I would imagine that to appear here, these shape casting its shadow on the other form. And besides the contiguity principle, this means that the simplicity principle is also in use, which means that only the very necessary details are introduced in the composition and everything else is taken out. You might recall that I talked about atmospheric perspective in the previous video. That details closer to us tend to feel warmer and more vibrant in their colors. And here is a perfect example, just to remind you of that, where we can see that these are the colors mainly in use in the foreground on the characters, while these cooler and less saturated colors used in the background. So once again, on the mountain, the sky, and even these details here at the bottom. And even though this is more important for illustration, it still can be used in your graphic design compositions. Another smart way that you can achieve depth in your compositions is the use of texture. In this case, we have these bullet holes, which would imply that there is a glass window or screen in front of the cover of this magazine and shots were fired and that glass broke. But besides that texture establishing something that's the closest to us, still further depth created within the composition by having the main character, Daniel Craig, James Bond, standing in front of the masthead, which is a very common technique with magazines. And then having covered lines and the rest of the topography and supporting images on top or in front of the main character in the composition. So even without the bullet holes, There's three distinct planes or layers on top of each other here. And that additional texture layer is adding fourth one on top of it. Here is another great example of implying depth with texture. In this case, besides the obvious perspective that we can see on the letters establishing details going further away in space. We also have that sensation that these letters are standing in water and that is achieved with this distorted texture on these reflected details for each of the letter forms. So even though there are no overlapping details here and also no shading use at all, we still feel that there is distance in the composition, but also that there is a plane or a surface of water. I love simple solutions like this because they are so effective. So instead of using more highlights and shading on the water, it simply just implied by having those ripples or texture on the reflected details. And last but not least, here is another example of texture used to create depth. But again, it feels like there is a window or a screen that's semi-transparent and the details that are further away from us are getting blurred out. While the face that feels closest to us are closest to that semi-transparent screen is clearer or more in focus. It is a genius solution to make the face really stand out from the rest of the details and also enable the typography to be legible on top of this image. Once all the details besides the face are blurred out, it is easy to place text on top of them because now they interfere much less due to the fact that now there are low frequency in terms of a visual load. And besides implying depth, texture can actually be used for a lot of different reasons in graphic design. And that is why we will coming back to it and talking more about it in another video. 6. Overlay & Overlap: Overlapping or overlaying images and typography in your compositions can help also to achieve depth. And it can also be used to emphasize other things like movement and written. In some cases, you can also use this approach to compress more visual information into a single composition that would otherwise not be possible. The most important technique we rely on when we are using design applications to be able to create overlaps and overlays between our elements is the use of layers. They are fundamental for every graphic design project. It is almost impossible working without them anymore. In the past, before the digital era and desktop publishing, of course, it was much harder to do this because they were just simply no layers. And the only way graphic designers would be able to do this by literally cutting things out and placing things on top of each other. Of course, this is a very limited method because you can't really adjust the opacity of these components. And there's also new blend modes which can help to create interesting interactions between your layers. So we definitely came a long way since then. And it's mainly down to the simplicity or the ease of being able to work with layers that shows in a lot of graphic design projects. And the common use of transparency being used as an integral part of compositions. Because if you think about it, both overlap and overlay relies on visibility or transparency, which can become an active design element, just like color, text, and imagery. So like always in this video, we will be looking at some creative uses of overlaps and overlays. Even though we've seen some examples of this in the previous videos, There's a lot more to discover here and a lot more inspiration together that you will be able to apply in your projects. I mentioned blend modes or blending of layers already in the beginning of this video. And that is something we can see being used in many of these examples. However, blending is not always necessary. We can also just simply use transparency, which makes certain elements more see-through than others. So, for instance, the PG tapes logo and also the MasterCard logo relies more on blending than transparency. And in case you are using Blend Modes often in applications like Photoshop, you will develop an eye of even being able to tell which blend mode is being used. In this case, for the PG tapes, I believe it is multiply while on MasterCard this looks more like overlay. It is definitely a good idea to get familiar with these blend modes. But don't feel like you have to learn all of them. Because depending on what images or components you are planning to blend together, they will always create a slightly different result. So even after a year of using them, I still experiment and sometimes flick through all of them before I decide which one is the one that works best in my composition. The cool thing about blending instead of using transparency is that both of the elements that you are blending together will still be fully opaque or visible. And here is a great example of this. Once again, we have the illustration of the scat and also we have the type on top of it. And remember what I said, sometimes we are using this technique of overlapping or overlaying to be able to compress more visual information into our canvas. In this case, by using the overlap technique, it was possible to maximize the size of both the illustration and the topography. So both of them are filling completely the canvas. And because of the clever use of overlay, we can still see both of them. It is also like a challenge that you send to your viewers when you do this type of thing. So they have to work a little bit harder to make sense of what they're seeing. Because of course, this is not as clear as having these two details next to each other, but as long as there is enough difference in the colors of the details that are blended together, it won't be annoying or confusing your viewers. Instead, it will be more intriguing and engaging. Notice that there is actually a little hint or visual aid here on the left side of this poster saying made in Japan, which is exactly the same texts that is overlaid in the composition. But these texts here is much easier to read. So even if we just glimpse at that for a split second, it will help us to identify what we can see in the main larger topography. And in this case, it's not only the overlay that makes it difficult to read the text, since readability is further reduced or decreased by having the three words made in Japan physically merged into each other. So for instance, the letter a, which we can see here is used both for the word made and also Japan here at the bottom. But notice that even the word in is connected to the other end character in the word Japan. And if this was not enough, there's even another interesting little detail here. The E character in the word made actually has two bars instead of just one. And I'm not sure why that was necessary, especially because these gaps here are not equal. So the one in the middle is wider than the other two. The only thing I can think of is that without these two bars, that would have been a little bit too much negative space here on the top compared to the rest of the composition. So it was probably necessary to achieve the right visual balance. Coming back to blending, I believe again, this is multiply or it could be hard light, or maybe even overlay, not a 100% sure. However, having these complimentary colors overlaid on top of each other really helps us to separate the two layers that we're seeing on top of each other, things can get even more interesting once you start combining, overlaying and overlapping in a single composition. So in this case it's a very similar combination. Even the colors are similar. And we can see that the blending is happening in certain areas, like here, here, there, and so on and so forth. Wherever you see that darker blue color, that's where both of the words high and five are visible at the same time due to the overlay or blending. But notice that there is also overlapping going on here because in some parts the two words are actually covering up each other. Like in this case here, the blue text is disappearing behind the red one. The same thing happening here. Once again, the blue text is behind the red one. And if you spend a little bit more time analyzing all of the intertwining details here, you will realize that every time the blue text is coming in front, it's going to be blending into the red text. While the red text is fully opaque and it is not blending to the blue texts whenever that goes in the background. So it is important if you are working with multiple effects, in this case, overlaps and overlay, that you stick to a specific rule. In this case, keeping one word opaque and only the other one being used for blending. Otherwise, if there is no system, it might get confusing and you might lose the interests of your viewers. 7. In front or Behind: Here's another great example of overlaying things on top of each other. In this case, blending was not necessary mainly because of the difference in the two things that are on top of each other. So there's a huge contrast between this thin line art of the sloth and the chunky white typography behind it. And it is actually not clear what's in front and what's behind. Mainly, I would consider this to be in the foreground because it is larger. And if you remember, when we think about space, whatever is larger, always feels closer to us. Now there's one thing that you really have to pay attention once you start overlaying or overlapping things on top of each other. And that is the tangents in your composition. And this is actually an area that we will be covering in much more detail in that topic. But essentially what this means is that you have to avoid details from different elements clashing with each other or having their edges meeting exactly in the same position. Because that can end up being confusing and distracting, not knowing what is actually closer and further away from us. So in this case, because of the high contrast between the two elements that are on top of each other. We don't really have to think too much about tangents. But still, I believe that this area here gets a little bit too close to each other. So the top of the O is perfectly aligned. Two important features of the sloths, like the nose and the eyes. So if it was up to me, I would have moved the sloth just ever so slightly higher so that these details are not clashing with that line of the o in may have been an intentional decision to place it exactly there. However, this would already be considered subtle but still noticeable tangent. If I was very picky and critical, I would say that there is another little tangent here. Once again, the line meeting the corner of this letter exactly at that point. And even this little line here is almost following exactly the end or coordinator of this letter here on the left. And same thing is happening here and here. Once again, the line is perfectly tangent to the curves of the typography. So for instance, take a look at this illustration here. The way that these vegetables are overlaid on top of each other and again, blended into each other allows them to steal all be visible and recognizable, even in this highly stylized or abstracted version. But to make sure that it's clear that they are on top of each other, even though we can see through them, the designer or illustrator made sure that there are no tangents in this composition. So for instance, the carrot and the onion in this place here has an obvious overlap. Well, imagine if the carrot was pushed a little bit to the left and there was a tension there. Then immediately we would lose that sense of depth and things would start looking way too flat. Then you are relying solely on overlapping and not overlaying things. Then you can still introduce some subtle effects like drop shadows to indicate space and depth. In this case, we have the type tool set in perfect wide apart from that one letter in the back, which is set in red. But notice that some of these letters have some subtle shading on them. It's most noticeable here on the w, can also see it a little bit here on the red, and maybe just ever so slightly here on the M. Again, when you are introducing effects like this, make sure that you are very subtle with it. So use the least amount necessary. So let's say you have a layer created for the shadow that is set to 100% opacity. I would go back all the way down to 0%, slowly increasing it until it is enough already to be noticeable. The first time you can start seeing it is going to be enough compared to going from 100 per cent down slowly until you think or believe that it became subtle enough. So go from 0% up slowly instead of doing it the other way. Remember, at the beginning I mentioned that you can achieve movement by overlaying or overlapping things on top of each other. And in this case, it's a brilliant example of the same image. Use three times in different colors blended together. And just simply by having them rotated within the composition, ever so slightly simulates that motion that we would expect to see when we're looking at the cyclist climbing up a hill and struggling, leaning left and right. This type of composition works well when you are paying attention to the repeated details, in this case, the bank being close to each other. So we have a visual anchor in the composition and things won't get too confusing. Here we have another brilliant example of four completely different images using different colors blended into each other. And these colors are actually the colors of ink used in print. Cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. And what makes this composition really engaging, I believe, is that we have the main image setting black, which feels the strongest or which has the most visual weight, being very static and centered by the other three images are much more dynamic. And there is even at trajectory here that we can notice. So it almost feels like the composition has a movement from left to right. I'm sure you've seen examples of these types of compositions where you have two completely different things exposed on top of each other. This is actually called multi exposure in photography. However, it became a trend in graphic design. And now there are so many different creative uses that you can find this particular method. And I really like this example because first of all, it uses the face of a woman, which is always a great way to grab the attention of people. But then it also has the books which relates to the topic. In this case, you guys did. It's about reading. To achieve this type of effect, you don't need to use blend modes. You just simply have to align the two layers on top of each other and use layer masks to show and hide certain parts of each of your layers. So in case of changing the opacity of each layer, you have to gradually reduce the visibility of items. So while the face is fully visible on the left side and the books are fully visible on the right side. They are slowly feeding into each other. But this transition is not like a linear gradient because we can see the books more on the top, while at the bottom, they are disappearing much faster. Switching back to blending and the overlay effect, you can also be extremely clever and creative in the way you use it in your compositions. Like in case of this Fight Club poster. But the profile of the two main actors are blended together. And the resulting blend here in the middle actually forms the silhouette or the phase of the third character from the movie was played by Helena bone and Carter. Something like this, of course, is very hard to pull off because you have to really find the right images for this type of composition to work. But when it does, it creates a very eye-catching and compelling design. 8. Shape & Form : Every graphic designer should learn how to work and make the most of shapes and forms in their compositions. In this video, we will cover a couple of important terms that you should be familiar with. But also we will look at a few amazing and creative examples. Whereas shapes and forms play an important role. So first of all, the difference between shape and form is that we're talking about shapes when they are two-dimensional, circles, rectangles, triangles, and even lines. While forms are three-dimensional objects like cubes, spheres, cylinders, cones, and so on and so forth. I love this project where we can see the original photograph and composition here on the top left corner. And then here on the right side we see a stylized abstracted version which uses forums. And then at the bottom, a further abstracted version, which relies solely on shapes. In real-life shapes and forms are very different from one another. While in graphic design, both shapes and forms are still represented in a two-dimensional plane, the printed page or a screen. And we have to rely on things like shading and perspective to make sure that the form still look three-dimensional. And this is something we already talked about. This is implying space or implying the three-dimensional forums. But even when you're working with shapes, you can still imply depth. For instance, again, by using shading or even texture in case of this composition. Another important term worth remembering when we talk about shapes is whether something is a positive or negative shape. The easiest way to explain this is that when you look at positive shapes, they have details inside them, while a negative shape only has an outline. So in case of this composition, for instance, we see a couple of positive shapes like that black triangle or these triangles with the images of people inside them. And these are combined with all of these triangles overlaid on top of them, which are only using a thin outline. And these are the ones that we would call negative shapes. In the previous video, we discussed overlaying an overlapping objects on top of each other. And here you can see a great example again, of overlapping both positive and negative shapes on top of each other can create a very intriguing and balanced composition. Of course, you don't have to combine negative and positive shapes all the time. You can also just simply rely on negative shapes and still create an interesting composition like in this case, again, we only see the outlines of this shape and all the other details around it. And what makes this even more interesting is that we can also see the outline and being a perfect circle, even though there is no actual line holding things together. So in a sense, that circle that's not even there, we are only imagining it is not even a negative shape. It's less than that. It can be considered a hidden shape. And remember, closure is one of the Gestalt principles that can make designs interesting. Again, we're relying on our viewer to imagine those missing details and connect the elements that they see. Both shapes and forms can be categorized as being organic or geometric, which sometimes is also referred to as inorganic. And in this composition we can see a great pairing of both S-shape and forums. So we have this circle here, which is a shape, and then we have these three-dimensional liquid forms. And while the circle in the background is a geometric shape, this liquid here in the foreground is an organic form. Anything can be considered organic, that is more than just the combination of the simple geometric shapes or geometric forms. But another very common attribute that we would associate with organic shapes and forms is that their outline is mainly made up of curves. And even if they have corners, they are usually rounded. Here we have another nice example of again, a combination of geometric and organic shapes. These circles and the lines, all geometric shapes. While here we have an organic shape. This is also considered an organic shape. Again, even though it doesn't have an outline, we would still see this as one shape. And then there is also another organic shape here on the top-left, nicely balancing out what we have here on the right, and also helping to create this diagonal composition. Now, even when we are looking at photographs like in this case, this lady here or the flowers behind her. We can also consider these organic forms. So these terms still apply even when we are thinking in three-dimensions. 9. Primitives or Compound : Another important way that you can categorize shapes is that whether they are primitives or simple geometric shapes, once again, circles, triangles, squares, or the compound shapes made up of multiple shapes merge together. So in case of this poster, for instance, we see lots of triangles on top of each other, but these would still be considered all individually as primitives or simple shapes. While the topography and the letters can be already considered individually as compound shapes. For instance, the letter e can be made up of four rectangles, 123 and four. So you can imagine this and all the other letters formed from simple shapes. And there's some great examples in logo design where you can create interesting compound shapes simply just by implying them, placing a couple of simple or primitive shapes next to each other. In this case, we have these rectangles displayed in a radial symmetry and they form an interesting negative space that is actually becoming another shape, this star, which by default would be considered a compound shape. Here is another example that's more three-dimensional thanks to these gradients and the shading. But if you just consider this to be as simple, thick line that was twisted and folded into itself. Then once again, we had originally as simple shape that then created a compound shape in the end or compound form, if we think of this as being three-dimensional. And here is another great logo example. Well, we can see that even within an individual object, we can transition seamlessly between a geometric and organic form. So we can consider this to be a sphere if we imagine it being closed. But we can also see this liquid spiral that keeps going up and wrapping around that invisible sphere. So by now, you can already see the pattern that visual interests can be achieved, usually by combining contrasting things, whether they are negative and positive shapes, organic and geometric shapes, or simple and compound shapes. And another term worth remembering, especially if you are interested in designing icons, is abstract shapes, which again, is a form of compound shapes. Or specifically to create a simplified representation of real life forms or shapes and symbols like these bathroom signs are perfect examples of abstract shapes. So even though they are extremely simplified compared to what they are representing, they can be seal recognized. And the advantage of this simplification process is that they become much more universal. So we can only associate to the genders of these two characters, but we can't see their age, their ethnicity, or any other attributes. And finally, it is important to mention that there is actually psychology of shapes. So all the primitive shapes have associated feelings connected to them. And the best example to understand this is if you think about inside out the movie from Pixar, where all the characters have very distinct traits and personalities. But when you look at their design, you can see that they are also made up of the shapes above them. So anger almost looks like a simple square, while sadness looks like a circle or ellipse, disgust is coasters probably to a triangle, mainly due to the skirt she is wearing. While Joy and fear are made up over a little bit more complex shapes and associations. So it looks more like a question mark. So we can see that former shape, both in his body but even on his hair. We have that sorts of question mark type, shape. And joy is usually looking like history, especially when she's spreading out her arms and legs, being excited all the time. On this board, I have a list of the most commonly associated attributes or traits that we would think of when we are looking at specific primitives. And you can see that there's even a big difference between seeing horizontal and vertical lines. So while a horizontal line can mean moving through time, a vertical line feels more stable or static and it can mean commitment. For instance, circles and round shapes have generally positive emotional vibe to them, and that is why they are so commonly used in illustrations for kids. So once again, we can see even from these very simple shapes, we can still recognize these animals. And we also have this great example of the whale formed within a circle. So in this case, these round shapes are helping to make everything look cuter and friendly or inviting. And even with typography, you can make use of these connotations or associations to the traits that I mentioned earlier. In this case, the long vertical lines and also the sharp angle here at the bottom makes this composition quite dramatic. And this shape can symbolize strength, power, or bravery. By this design, made up completely of typography, feels much more solid, static, and balanced, mainly thanks to the fact that it forms a perfect square, but also the subtle round corners help to make this a bit more approachable compared to the previous design. And one last thing I wanted to mention is that you can also use juxtaposition when you are showing certain items that we're familiar with in a completely different way, like this skull or the golf ball turned into a cube or a square. Creating unusual versions of familiar objects can always create a great shock value, which will definitely grab your viewers attention. 10. Texture : It is easy to overlook texture as an element of design. However, when it's used cleverly in compositions, it can create contrast and depth and even evoke emotions from our viewers. Now, just like everything else in design, you should never use texture just for the sake of it. It should always reinforce and support the message of your composition because we're not used properly, textures can easily end up becoming distracting. What I really like about textures and the reason why I like to use them in my work is that normally we can only rely on the vision of our viewers. So people look at the design that we create. That's the only sense they are using. However, once you introduce texture, whether it's physical or virtual, you will be relying on their sensation of touch. And in real life, we can now only feel things with our hands, but anything that touches our skin, we will react to that sensation is incredibly sensitive. You can even feel a single hair falling on your hand, for instance. So even when you are just showing or implying textures in your compositions, your viewer's past experience of interacting with those textures will be recalled. And their visual experience of looking at your design will be enriched with the sensation of touch that they are imagining in their head. Now I mentioned that in graphic design, textures can be also tactile and physical and are only virtual. So this is something that they can actually experience and touch. A good example of this, a special printing technique is an boss. And the boss when you have certain details like topography pressed into the paper or punched out. And this can even be combined with special inks used on the same areas, which again can increase the contrast like in this example where we have the rough cardboard next to these divorced or pressed in typography covered in this special metallic ink in the print design topic, we will talk a lot more about these and various other printing techniques that can help to make your composition more interesting and engaging compared to tactile and physical textures for which we have to rely on these special printing techniques. You can also use digital textures where you are just implying certain materials. This is again similar to implying depth with all those techniques that we already covered. And certain textures like this plastic curtain can also add depth to the composition. Whenever you are deciding on using a texture in your composition, you should always think about its qualities. In this case, the texture is very reflective and it's going to pick up any lights in the environment. And it's actually working amazingly well in this case, because we can see that reflected purple light that otherwise won't be visible because there is nothing else in the background that would otherwise indicated. It is a very common practice for adverts, especially for drinks and juices, that we would see some form of liquid also used as a texture in the composition. Like here, we have all of these lovely little drops next to the slices of oranges. And in this case, not only the drops can be considered textures, but even the oranges themselves. And in these cases, on top of the sensation of vision and touch, we are also triggering the sensation of taste. So showing delicious food or even ingredients of a beverage is always a great way to get your viewers attention and to make them thirsty or hungry. 11. Liquids: Here we can see a couple of really cool virtual textures applied to topography. Most of them are simulating liquids. Like in this case, we have a two-dimensional representation of liquid. While here we have a 3D render showing this abstract organic form of some kind of liquid. It looks more like oil. Then we have another cool digital hand lettering here, which simulates dripping paint. And very similar to this, this composition which says dirty is a very cool combination of something that's completely digital, which is the hand lettering, but combined with an actual photograph of a hand getting dirty, makes the whole composition much more powerful and impactful. 3d renders are also commonly used to introduce textures in work, you can find loads of different examples of this, like this furry and percent here on the right, which looks so soft and you just want to cut the lead like a teddy bear. And again, to increase visual interests, you can always combine completely different and contrasting textures like here we have this very soft texture on one of the forums. By the other one looks much sharper, more rigid, and colder. Here is another interesting composition which shows that you don't even need to introduce two different textures to create contrast. Because by applying the texture only on a section, in this case, 1.5 of the composition, we immediately created a big contrast between the two sides. And since we have some topography on this poster, It's also worth mentioning that even text forms texture in your work, which you wouldn't normally think of because everyone is, first of all, reading the tax that is placed in a composition. But when texts gets distorted or even rotated 90 degrees like here, it is easier to concentrate on the textural quality of the text, which mainly relies on the typeface that you use in your work. And also things like the tracking or letter spacing, the leading or line spacing, and of course, color, scale and even the position of the text within the composition. In this particular case, I believe that the designer chose intentionally this bold and bulky typeface, which turned 90 degrees to the side, still reads perfectly in German, the language that it is setting. However, because of its thickness and orientation, it can also remind us of Japanese characters that are written vertically instead of horizontally. Just tried to squint your eyes and you most likely will be able to imagine the Japanese characters. Virtual texture is also something that is very commonly used in digital illustration to simulate traditional media like paint or crayons on Canvas. So for instance, here we can see an illustration without any texture. And then once we introduce texture becomes much more interesting and feels more natural. It can help to reduce the rigidness and structure of vector illustrations. Here's another nice example of an illustration that relies heavily on textures. And I love the fact that the central area becomes the focal point, not only by having it set in a contrasting color to the environment, but also by not having any texture on it. So even though we see texture all around, this central part here is completely clean. And even though the textures are completely virtual and everything is in a digital format, is still gives us the same sensation when we are touching different textures in a printed format. Last but not least, it's also worth mentioning another useful term that you might hear, especially if you get into web design or UX design. It's skeuomorphism, which is a technique used to simulate real life objects. There was a big trend where all icons were created with this. And here we can see a comparison of the old icons using skeuomorphism out-of each. Probably the most realistic ones are the nodes and the new standard, which both showed these objects in 3D, even though they are restricted in this small square format. But more importantly, they also implied textures of the original objects. In this case, paper by here is the vote that the bookshelf is made of and compare it to this completely different direction is the flat design where all of these skeuomorphic details are removed. Trends in graphic design come and go just like in fashion. So you shouldn't ignore something just because currently is not being used or not being trendy. And most of the time when something feels outdated, eventually will return and become trendy again, maybe with the combination of another style. 12. Perspective : Perspective is a term that most of the time you would hear mentioned in the context of architecture, drawing, illustration, or photography. However, it also plays a very crucial role in graphic design. It is also a way we can simulate depth that we experience in real life in our compositions. But it can also add a lot of dynamism and momentum to our designs to understand perspective, first of all, we need to understand the term vanishing point, which is a point in space. All receding parallel lines seem to converge. So to make sense of that, in case of this first composition here, the blame poster, we would have a vanishing point somewhere around here, close to this focal point in the composition that men standing in the door. But the important thing here is that if we connect these two lines which are supposed to be parallel to each other, wherever they meet, somewhere in the distance, that is going to be a vanishing point. Now when you're using perspective in your designs, you can decide how many vanishing points you wouldn't want to use. A single vanishing point is already enough to make things feel realistic. In case of these photographs here on the left side, you will mainly see the vanishing point in the middle, but all the receding parallel lines are converging to. So we can see these lines all pointing there. So the ones on the right and even the trees feel like they are pointing all to the same position. The same thing we can see here, an obvious vanishing point or so aligned to the horizon. But even when we are looking up to skyscrapers, we will be able to find that vanishing point by once again, all these parallel lines would be converging to. And finally, one more photograph where again, you will be able to find the vanishing point of this one-point perspective very easily to help you imagine how vanishing points work, here are a couple of simple examples. So first of all, we can see the one-point perspective, again, the vanishing point being in the middle, followed by the two-point perspective, where we have a vanishing point on the left and another one on the right. So compared to the one-point perspective, where the horizontal lines were still completely straight. Here, horizontal parallel lines also start to recede into space in both directions. But notice how vertical lines are still straight. However, once we introduce a third vanishing point, like in this case, we have two and then there is the third one. Even vertical lines will start to recede and converge in space. Using three-point perspective is a great way to emphasize height. And depending whether you place your third vanishing point below the horizon level or above, you will be able to create a completely different viewpoint here, when the third vanishing point is placed above the horizon line, we would get the frog's eye view when we are looking up towards things. And even if they are not total objects, if you have the vanishing points close to each other, you would get an extreme distortion, which could make things look much taller than what they actually are. And on the other hand, if you place your third vanishing point below the horizon line, you would get the bird's-eye view when you are looking down at things, this can be used if you want to display a lot of things and you want to make sure they all fit into your composition. And this is probably the best type of perspective view, which can cover the largest distance within a composition. Now in case you want to make things even more complicated, you can even go beyond three vanishing points within a composition like this drawing here actually uses five-point perspective view, where we have the four vanishing points here on the edges of this sphere. And then the fifth one would be here in the middle. And if you want to see these more complex perspective in action, I highly recommend you check out the work of the amazing Korean artist called Kim UMG. Here you can see two of his incredibly complex drawings. And the unbelievable thing about him is that he is drawing these all completely from his imagination and without any sketches. So he has everything already planned in his head when he started drawing. And most of the time he's actually drawing with ink. So it is not even using an eraser. 13. Vanishing lines: But since this course is about graphic design, Let's come back to a couple of very creative examples of again, perspective being used. Like with this Tour de France poster, we can clearly see those parallel lines. In this case, these are actually exaggerated motion lines. We can see here, which really emphasizes the speed and power of the cyclist. And the great thing about this composition is that the vanishing point again, is placed close to these landmarks, the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. On this board, you will find lots of other great examples Where perspective is used mainly to emphasize motion and speed. Like with the cars poster, once again, we have a very extreme distortion, further amplified by the fact that the car is so close to us. And when we will reach the Topic hierarchy, we will talk a lot about dominance and emphasis. This is actually a perfect example of showing dominance within a composition where the dominant feature is the tire and perspective views, especially where vanishing points are close to each other, can result in these extreme distortions that can help to fit more information into a composition and really highlight the specific detail like this. The same thing we can see here on this poster. But besides having the vanishing point, again, in a strong focal point where the sun is, we also have all of these motion lines amplifying the effect of the perspective. And by placing this detail about the disability of this character so close to us within this extreme distortion makes it much larger than it would appear normally when a strong distortions like this is used. It's also important to learn another term called foreshortening, which explains the differences in proportions and helps us to understand what we are looking at. You don't always have to rely on illustrations. If you want to introduce perspective in your compositions. You can see a few examples here where it's mainly the topography that creates the perspective, like in this poster, we have this simple outline texts in 3D using a two-point perspective. And because we are seeing these characters from below, it means that the horizon line must be somewhere underneath them. And then another technique used here that can also make compositions like this more interesting is that actually the horizon line is probably on an angle. I would say something like this. And the way I can tell that is because the vertical lines that are supposed to be straight are also on an angle. Now I'm not a 100% sure, but there might even be a third vanishing point here. So if we were to connect all of these vertical lines, and if they appear to recede in space, we might actually find a third vanishing point somewhere up here, which again, as you remember, can help to make things feel much larger than the art, especially from this angle, looking at them from below, we will talk more about viewpoints once we reach the topic of balance. But for now, let's just take a look at a few other examples like this one. Once again, relying mainly on the typography to achieve perspective or this layout with the amplify text using an extreme distortion. And even in logo design, perspective can be used like with this one, constructions image. And I love how clever this design is. Because not only we can see that there are these cubes in perspective and having again, a vanishing point somewhere here in space. But also it relies on the design principle of closure because these details are not connected. It's only our mind that connects the missing details. But more importantly, and what makes this really clever is that we also get these numbers here. Number one, which is what connects it to the actual brand name one, constructions. Now, while perspective can help us to simulate three-dimensional space, axonometric views are considered to be some things more similar to 2.5 dimensions. It is something that is not completely natural. It's not something you would see in real life, but we still understand them representing height, width, and depth, even easier than compositions using perspective, you can think of axonometric projections as simplified version of perspective. And what makes these views unique is that there are no distortions at all. So there are no receding lines and no vanishing points, which means that objects as they get further away in space don't actually get smaller. So here is a good example of an axonometric projection where we have all four letters being exactly the same size, even though it feels like T is furthest away from us, it's still exactly the same size as the letter E at the front. And this is actually the most common axonometric projection. Which we call isometric view, where the angles to show the three sides, left, right, and top are equal. So here is a simple comparison of the different types of axonometric projections. And this one is the isometric one where, as you can see here, is the 30 degrees angle used to show the left side of the object. And this angle would be equal, that would again be 30 degrees. But for isometric views, you also have to make sure that the same length vertically is going to be equal to the other two sides of the cube. So all sides will be exactly the same length By compared to this. In diametric view, the height is not going to be the same length. So there's already a subtle distortion, but still there are no receding lines. So this doesn't introduce perspective, it just changes the viewpoint of the projection. And finally, in trigometric, axonometric projections, you would have all the sides of the cube slightly different in length. So this edge here is not equal to the vertical edge, and also they are not equal to the edge on the right side. Here's another example comparing the three axonometric projection options that you can use out of which the most common one has to be the isometric view. This is what you would see most of the time in graphic design and illustration. One of my favorite example for isometric view has to be the mobile game called Monument Valley. There's actually two of these at the moment of recording this video. And the reason I like this game because it displays and uses the strange optical illusion that a line that we feel connected like this platform here, it starts off being at the bottom of this tower. But by the end, without actually showing any increase in altitude or height, it ends up connecting to the center of the tower. So it somehow manage to go up this much, once again without showing any changes in height, even this little detail here, this column seems like it is resting on that platform, but this character in the game can actually walk across it and step on it from that side. Even though logically this point here should be much higher than this platform. Here's another cool illustration that plays with this strange optical sensation that we have when we look at isometric illustrations. So in this case we have two letters placed on top of each other, you and P, which stands for up. And even though there is no indication of space, we would normally feel like this detail is closer to us. This one here on the top. But by having these letters and connecting lines, we can understand that they are actually above each other. But just like with perspective, when you want to use isometric or other axonometric views, you don't have to rely on illustrations. You can also recreate the same experience simply just by relying on typography. And this poster is a brilliant example, but you will also find other ones on this board, like this one here, also another poster on the right, and even this one where a timeline with its captions is created in an isometric projection. 14. Leading lines: And cooperating leading lines into your composition can be another great way of helping your viewers and leading their eyes to certain parts within your design. The best way to utilize them is to have them point to a focal point within the composition or to indicate a specific direction or motion. At first, you might think that leading lines and perspective is the same thing, but actually they are quite different because you can use leading lines even without perspective. So here's a great example. This retro poster of New York has all of these colorful lines indicating a left to right direction, mainly because we can't see where they start here on the left side, but we can see that end points on the right. And the illustrator or designer introducing these lines in the composition achieved a couple of different things. First of all, it helps to focus on the Statue of Liberty because all of these lines are pointing towards that part in the design, but they are also used to establish depth, like some of these lines, as you can see, are coming in front of the Chrysler Building in the foreground. Bio, some of the lines are going behind it. And the same thing happens here with the Statue of Liberty. Again, we have a line that goes behind it and another line that comes in front of it. The variation of depth in these lines, but also the variation in their thickness and color also helps to add visual rhythm in the composition. And rhythm is a very important principle that we discuss in much more detail in the unity and harmony topic. Here is another illustration that shows that we don't actually need perspective for leading lines to work. In this case, the viewpoint is placed above these runners and these diagonal lines here that represents the track on which they are running can be considered leading lines, helping again to establish the forward motion of the athletes. Now of course, you don't have to avoid perspective. If you want to create or introduce leading lines into your composition, they want cash. They can actually work really nicely hand-in-hand. In this case, I would consider the curves of the beach to be the leading lines. And they obviously create this great sense of perspective as they are all getting closer to each other here in the distance. And these lines also help us and direct our attention to this focal point area here, which is the airplane on this brilliant poster for the movie Dune that was released in 2021. We also have a very strong curve, the tip of this June in the desert world of Iraqis that connects the title and this character here at the bottom. But the amazing thing about this composition is that the same curve that we see here also forms as section of something that we can imagine being a planet. And since this is a sci-fi story set in the future, in space, planets play a huge role. But besides that, it can also be considered as the first letter of the word June. And I really admire the designer who came up with this composition because there's just so much hidden meanings packed into this extremely simplistic design. It's a great example of the less is more rule in action, but also showing the power and strength of simplicity. Gestalt principle. Moving on, here is another brilliant illustration where the leading lines are actually indicated by light and shadow. It might be hard to notice at this size. But there is a character here at the bottom where the horse and also leading another horse. And even though these characters are tiny, thanks to the leading lines, eventually almost everyone would notice them. And the leading lines in this case, as I said, are created by light and shadow. So these lines, and also these lines are all pointing down here around this section where we have the characters. And what makes this illustration even more interesting is that instead of having just parallel lines used as leading lines, here, they almost form like arrows. So we can see the tip of this arrow here and there's the two sides of it. And the same thing here. Again, it looks like an arrow to me. So this is just another masterful example of how you can use leading lines to direct your viewers attention to important details in your composition. 15. Negative Space: If you're interested in graphic design at term, most likely you already came across has to be negative space or whitespace. In this video, I am going to show you many examples of why it is so important to use and utilize negative space in your compositions. And we will learn different ways of using it, whether it is to create a certain type of aesthetic or mood, or to add some hidden meanings into your designs. So first of all, why is it called negative space? The reason for that is because all the elements that we place into our compositions we consider to take up positive space so the surrounding empty spaces can be considered being negative. Now you probably guessed that negative space can be just as important as the positive space in your compositions. And finding a balance between these two is a key and crucial tasks for every graphic designer, the best way to remember the importance and the relationship between these two types of spaces in your compositions is to think about breathing. Something that we all have to do constantly throughout our entire life, most of the time, even without thinking about it. And you would think that breathing in is the important bit in this process. However, without first clearing your lungs and breathing out, you would never be able to breathe in. So you can consider positive space in graphic design to be the breeding in part, and negative space to be the breathing out. One cannot exist without the other. And that has to also be a good balance between breathing in and out or positive and negative space. And you can find lots of other analogies are ways to understand how this relationship works. Like in music, for instance, without having some break or pause between sounds, we won't be able to enjoy the music because it would just end up being a constant noise. And even in pop music, usually the most impactful part of a song is just after a longer pause, and usually it happens just before the chorus, the repeated part in the song returns. You can see the pause in music or negative space in design is reserved for the most important or impactful detail. So if you look at this design for instance, we can see that these would be considered positive spaces. And also obviously all the typography that we can see here in the middle, also on the top, and also here at the bottom. But already in-between these, we have negative space right here or so here and here. But the more noticeable are these larger areas where again, we have nothing, just a white background. And specifically in print where the paper is white, we would refer to this as whitespace. There is also a useful way of categorizing negative space. You can use it on a micro or macro level. And in this case, these larger areas would be macro negative spaces, while the smaller spaces between letters, for instance, in the topography, would be considered micro negative spaces. And spaces between characters can also be considered passive negative space, while the spaces that you intentionally leave blank, like all of these larger areas, you can consider active negative spaces. And in most compositions, you will always have a combination of micro and macro, or passive and active negative spaces. Since we're talking about music, here is a great example of a classical music festival where we now only see a brilliant way of utilizing negative space. But also a great example of the figure ground Gestalt principle, which is a method that can help your viewer to see multiple different meanings in the same design. So in this case, you can consider these two violins to be the subjects placed in front of this white backdrop, which encase the white backdrop, would be the ground and the violence would be the figure. However, if you concentrate at the outline or contour, foreign by the violins, it looks like a face and especially further emphasized by this bow tie. So we're looking at it from this point. This empty space becomes a person and the figure in the composition and the violence become the ground or the backdrop. And most of the time, if you want to use the figure ground rule in your work, you would have to use negative space to suggest additional meanings. And you can see many other examples of this on this board, like the light bulb here that is also forming a bridge, the smoke that is also forming the contour of Sherlock Holmes phase. These two kids playing football here. But in between them we can also see the outline of Africa, or this brilliant poster created by Olly Moss, by the cliffs and the mountains are also forming the outline of a tree. 16. Hidden meanings: If you are interested to see other great examples of negative space used in illustrations, I highly recommend you check out all the mosses work or compositions by the legendary designer Paul Rand. Negative space can also be used in logo design. And I'm pretty sure you've also came across this example of the FedEx logo where the reason for this tight tracking or narrow letter spacing was to create this little arrow here between the E and the x. And this is a brilliant solution for this company because that arrow is suggesting the speed of delivery. But besides using negative space to achieve these type of hidden meanings, we can also rely on it to introduce tension in our composition or even to achieve a specific mood or aesthetic. In editorial design, especially for layouts in magazines, large areas of negative space achieves a more luxurious, sophisticated fail. And that usually comes down to the fact that if you have a lot of empty space, then that means that you will have to have more pages within your magazine, which would lead to the cost of manufacturing or printing and even delivery to increase. Here is a very interesting study conducted by Sally Lin Meyer, who recognized that the more negative space you have in a magazine, the higher the average household income of their readership is. So here we can see some of the spreads simplified to showing the positive spaces in black and the negative spaces in white. So it is clear that for instance, the New York Times Time Magazine has a lot of negative space compared to the ok Magazine, which is almost completely filled with positive space to a point that most likely in some cases can even feel cluttered. And why the average household income of the readership of this magazine is around $150 thousand per year. The OK magazines readership is closer to only $40 thousand per year. So when we look at the magazine spread like this one, immediately we can spot the vast amount of negative space being used here on the right side. And besides the feeling of sophistication, we can also get a sense of calmness, which perfectly emphasizes the topic of this article, which is about the nature of a place. Using large amounts of negative space in adverts can also help to grab viewers attention, because the same rule applies here. Most advertisers like to put as much information as possible into a composition. And controversially, these are the ones that we would most likely ignore. However, an advert like this in a magazine or on the street would immediately grab our attention. But make sure whenever you use extreme amount of negative space like this, there should always be a reason for it. So in this case, again, it is helping not only to grab people's attention, but also to emphasize the small scale of this sapling of a Christmas tree, which is a perfect way to visually imply the early Christmas sale. Basically, it tries to indicate that the sale is so early that the Christmas tree is still just a tiny little sapling in the ground. And the way that the designer assured that we can immediately tell that this is a tiny little tree, is that we have a very recognizable object here, this red bubble that establishes the proportions. And here's another advert where instead of the negative space being used to create that juxtaposition between large and small. Here it is used more to achieve that luxurious feel that again, is working perfectly well with the product that's being advertised. And it would be a shame not to mention the adverts from Apple when we are talking about negative space, because it is a brand that clearly utilizes it in pretty much everything that they do and innovate. They made it into a signature element or component of their brand. So you can see that they are using a lot of negative space, whether it is a snapshot from one of their webpages or one of their large billboards. And it is again, a clever use of negative space because obviously the product in this case is iPad Mini. And the way they kept everything free here, and only using a small little area here on the right side indicates how small this product is, even when it is displayed on a massive billboard like this one. So by using this much negative space, they could create this visual pun. But remember, it is also a great way to grab the viewer's attention because we're not used to seeing these blank billboards, but only a small little information hidden on the two sides of it. 17. Proximity: Proximity is a principle of design and also a gestalt principle that states that objects that are placed closer to each other feel more related than objects further away from each other. It is very similar to the technique of grouping in graphic design, which we'll cover in more detail in the unity and harmony topic, but proximately is slightly more complex than just grouping things together. And in this video, we will be looking at some very creative examples of utilizing proximity and playing around with it. Starting off with this unusual book cover, which relies solely on typography, but also it uses these strange large gaps between certain letters. This is something we would call kerning when you are adjusting individually the spacing between characters, and in this case, currently, is not used to create a visually balanced composition. The opposite, it creates more of a shock value. And even though I haven't read the book, I guess it is suggesting that large cities should have more space in them to make them more habitable. But more importantly, this cover is actually going against the rule of proximity. Because for words to read as one, we would normally want to have the characters close to each other and having balanced or equal spacing between them. While here characters that are supposed to be close to each other are pushed or move further away, decreasing their proximity. And it is important to remember that as a graphic designer, once you learn and understand a rule, you can always flip it around and use it in the opposite way that most people would expect. This way, you can be sure that you will grab your viewers attention and they will be intrigued to find out why you went against something that would feel more natural, the more information or options that you have to display in your designs, the more important it becomes to use proximity. In case of a website, for instance, similar options should be placed close to each other. Like all the pages can be accessed from the same area. Also, the most important buttons are placed side-by-side, but they are also placed close the main title and tagline within the site. But there is also another very creative use of proximity by having this orange balloon right in front of this white shape, we immediately associate to an egg or an omelet. So the proximity of the balloon to this shape was necessary to introduce this hidden meaning. And similarly to this, we also have this very smart McDonald's post on their social media. We have these two slippers placed next to each other form the iconic logo of the brand or this Toyota Edward, where the three tennis rackets, please together forms the logo of the brand. And also in these Lego Edwards, proximity plays a very important role in each of these, the shadows are indicating the imagination of the kids who would play with these blocks. So even a few simple blocks attached to each other can already help kids to imagine things like a tank or a ship or a dinosaur. And all of these compositions rely mainly on the vicinity or proximity of the shadows and the Lego blocks. And even though we know that these two things actually don't belong to each other, placing them so close to each other still makes us believe that they are connected. I also really liked this poster of the golden melody of words by once again, we can see proximity used in a couple of different ways. First of all, we have the model really close to us, and actually with her back towards us, that already sets the mood for this composition and also grabs our attention. But it is further amplified by the topography, which once again is not trying to achieve good Readability, instead is used for making this design more dynamic. So the proximity of these letters is once again unusual and again helps to make the whole composition more interesting. And just to stay with typographic examples, we've already seen that extreme kerning or lattice spacing can be used to emphasize certain things in a composition. For this particular cover, the spaces between words are completely removed and the viewers are challenged to be able to make sense of what they see here. Because the readability obviously suffers a lot once you remove the spaces between words. So this is just another great example of how you can be creative in the way that you utilize proximity in your work. 18. Conclusion: Congratulations on completing this course of the graphic design theory series. I hope you found it useful and inspiring. Don't forget to go through the glossary of terms PDF, review everything we covered, and if you feel ready, take the quiz to test your knowledge. Come back anytime to the references on the millenial boards we used in this course to help you remember the things we talked about or define inspiration for your next design project, please let us know if you felt there was anything missing from this course or if you have any suggestions on how we can improve it, email us at info at the assignment designer.com, and we will get back to you as soon as possible. We really appreciate your input and help. Now, it's time for you to pick your next topic and dive into another graphic design theory course. Remember, there is no right or wrong order to complete this series. All the rules we cover are equally important and everything is related. But what is most important is getting a good understanding of these rules and applying them in your projects. I'm sure you will use what you've learned to create something amazing. And I cannot wait to see it.