space in typographic design

[ana b]

hi all,

i'm a book designer who is at present undertaking an ma in graphic design. for my final project, duration of 1 academic year, i shall attempt to expose the significance of the space in typographic design, starting from exploring form & counterform, then moving on to figure and ground, foreground and background and finally object and environment.

seeing as there are many of you who are absolutely fanatical about type and design i would greatly appreciate if you could put your views across about the importance of space when using type. Also if you have done any experimental work on this subject I would be very interested in seeing it. or if you have any other information (exhibitions, articles, books etc) that you might think it would be useful.

At present I have done an extensive amount research and have read many books. if anyone is keen on this subject i'll be happy to give you reading references an other materials i've come across.

i look forward to hearing from you all.

[1ooScreamingTrees]

i'd love to see some of your reference list - this seems like a very niche subject to be doing a thesis on...sorry I can't provide any more sources!

[emmerse]

I LOVE to creat wide open layouts. blurps of text delicately placed in solid blocks of color. breathing room is a gem.

Unfortunately, most of my day to day projects don't allow for that. that said, the client I deal with the most is a marketing manager for a real estate company and likes contemporary, slightly edgy stuff. This allows me to seperate her from the rest of the sub-par advertising in this town.

back to your original question, you dropped a lot of terms I'm not even familar with... :)

[budafist]

All I can think of is kerning.
(http://www.veer.com/products/merchdetail.aspx?image=VPR0001260)

[tZ]

Well I mean not to make an example of someone but, this just posted further emphasis the important of space in typography:

http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25960

Without space typography can be difficult to read or at the worst unreadable.

You could also touch upon proximity. In that proximity is related to space which relates to hierachy. Without space proximity would not be possible which would make it more difficult to create a sucessfull hierachy.

[SpugNothuson]

proximity is related to space which relates to hierachy. Without space proximity would not be possible which would make it more difficult to create a sucessfull hierachy.
It's at time like this that I realise I have to go and read a book. This quote made no sense to me. Most likely because of my backdoor access to design, no formal training or teachings of any kind, I'm here by doing.

Off to buy a typography book after work methinks, some late night reading and I shall endeavor to make a useful response to this thread.

[vxhorusxv]

In a lot of my design I like mixing object alignment to "activate" the white space. I read a book some time ago - I forget which - that literally spent the front half of it talking about 'white space' and how crucial it is to design. What separates good design from bad design - in many instances - is the activation of this white space or in other words making sure the white space is not 'trapped'.

A friend recently asked me to design their resume to be more eye catching. She had been working with a 1 column design from MS Word and she decided she was fed up. I proposed two columns with the left-hand column aligned flush-right and ragged left, then a 2 or 3p space and the next column aligned flush-left and rag right. For her own reasons, she wanted the columns' content switched, so we would up with a full-justified left block, the same space and a flush-left, rag right column on the right. It worked exceedingly well and everyone she interviewed with complimented it. The large block projected a lot of stability and confidence, and a warm serif with circles as a header rule made sure the design wasn't cold.

I hope this is somewhat useful to you =)