I talk about a hidden part of the creative pursuit that most people aren't aware of.

Music and links from this episode

The Entertainer (1902, piano roll) by Scott Joplin

Belview by C. Scott

Knuckle Up by C. Scott

En Croisiere by Juanitos

Line-by-line notes

Hello. It’s me, Craig.

Before we get into today’s show, I wanted to quickly talk about something new I’m working on

I’m starting a new podcast soon

There’s lots of things I don’t know about it yet

Like the name, the final format, when it’ll be released

But I’m really excited by it

Because I’ll be interviewing designers and creatives that I love

We’ll be talking about geeky stuff from the design and creative worlds

And I’m really looking forward to it

The reason I’m telling you about this so early is because I need your help

If you know of a designer or a creative that you’d love to hear have a chat with me

OR, you are a designer or a creative and you’d love to have a chat with me

Ping me on twitter at craigburgess or email me at [email protected] and we’ll go from there

Promo, done.

INTRO

There’s a thing in any creative endeavour

That’s actually more important than the work itself

It’s older than time, and it’s a concept that’s been around forever

It’s older than this song

And some might say that to become a great designer, your understanding of it has to be absolute

And most of all, it’s something you’ve probably never considered and even known it’s a thing

I’m talking about space

No, not the kind of space in Star Trek

The other kind

This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess

PLAY MID SONG

Negative Space

White Space

Leave some room to breathe

It’s called different things by different people

Negative space as a concept is pretty simple

All it refers to is the space around or between the main subject of an image

In visual mediums, it’s the space where nothing is in the piece

It’ll be the spare space that’s left blank around something

To an untrained eye, it doesn’t look like an intentional thing

When you’re reading a book, the words don’t go to the very edge of the page

And that’s intentional, to aid your reading consumption and make it as comfortable as possible

But not only did somebody design where the words will go

And how much space is between them and what size the letters should be

Somebody also designed the space, the area where nothing is

It’s often an alien concept to some clients too

Who are always keen to see it as wasted space

Space that should be filled with something else

But once the negative space is filled up

It doesn’t have any power anymore, it’s not negative space now

It’s one of the rare areas of life where nothing is more powerful than something

It’s a concept that’s important in any artistic composition

Across “proper art”, photography, design, even music and writing

There’s a famous quote about it by Artur Schnabel

the pauses between the notes – ah, that is where the art resides

The concept of the pause shows up in lots of areas of life

Pausing to reflect

Pausing to catch your breath

Space to breathe

Clearing your mind to create space

Space is seen as the holy grail of calm and peacefulness

It’s seen as a way to true enlightenment

And this also makes sense in graphic design

It’s often said that you’re not a proper designer until you can fully command negative space

Until you fully understand what to leave out, rather than what to add in

I like the Japanese phrase ma, which is roughly translated as gap, space or pause

Even better, I love the description of it from wikipedia

It is best described as a consciousness of place,

not in the sense of an enclosed three-dimensional entity,

but rather the simultaneous awareness of form and non-form deriving from an intensification of vision.

Ma is not something that is created by compositional elements;

it is the thing that takes place in the imagination of the human who experiences these elements.

Therefore, ma can be defined...