The DL on Design: My Friend White Space
2 March 2020
Bianca Sawyer
Lead Designer, Identity Marketing
White space in graphic design is the controlled negative space in a composition. It’s the ‘blank area’ between images, the spaces between text and the space within borders. It’s also the vital tool that Graphic Designers use to help the viewer navigate the page – meaning improved readability and clear focal points, messages and statements.
As a senior graphic designer, I like to explain white space with this analogy: Picture yourself driving down a well-known main road such as Smith Street in Melbourne. The street is lined with shop fronts covered in bright coloured signage that all compete with each other for the attention of passersby making it visually overwhelming and difficult to navigate – this is bad graphic design. Good design is a quiet, tree-lined street that features a couple of stores with meaningful signage, making it easy to find a park, easy to navigate and easier to focus.
Broadly speaking, real estate design has evolved, however so much of it still abides by standardised primary colours, flashy text and the word SOLD plastered across every piece of advertisement possible. Companies such as Ray White, Harris, The Agency and LJ Hooker have previously noted this and have evolved to a point where white space has allowed them to stand out and excel in the industry through clean design.
White space has given their brands a point of difference and provided clean, minimalist and simple messages in their marketing.
Although some real estate brands have come far, on the whole there is still room for improvement across the board. In an industry where competition comes in bulk, it can take a lot of will power to only put down the key message you want to convey. It’s important to take a step back and assess what your brand and marketing material is trying to achieve and how your audience is viewing it.
Ask yourself, Are you putting too much information on signboards? Does your branding have too many elements? Are you cramming every piece of information you could possibly think of onto a page because, maybe, something in there might set you apart from the competition?
If the answer is yes to any of the above, you may be defeating the purpose of your entire marketing plan – Selling the house.
Remember, white space is your friend, it’s time to form a relationship and elevate your brand.
