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50 excellent examples of using negative space

Posted by / July 28, 2015

Your images are stunning, your font choices above reproach, but, as a designer, are you taking full advantage of what’s not there?

Effective use of negative space lends a unique twist to graphic designs by tapping the power of nothing and turning it into something spectacular.

Find ideas in these fifty examples gathered by Canva Design School‘s Caitlin Jordan. It’s the one time negativity is a great thing.

Be literal

Behance/Maurizio Pagnozzi

Behance/Maurizio Pagnozzi

This design used the number one to create a letter in the word one. They could have simply used only the word or only the number, but the combination of both adds a unique twist. The ‘N’ isn’t incredibly apparent at first, but once you realize it’s there, it makes it all the more great.

Use it minimally

Behance/Aaron von Freter

Behance/Aaron von Freter

This poster uses negative space in a very minimalistic way. The background color fades into the waves and adds the details into the illustration. Instead of using another shade of blue and complicating the composition, the cream color acts as the separator and works in nicely.

Use letterforms

Behance/Thu Doan

Behance/Thu Doan

This brochure for a zoo uses the letter ‘Z’ to house images of its animals. Rather than simply having standard square or rectangular photos, they’re cropped inside the letter, adding dimension to the brochure.

Full story at Canva Design School.

Great graphic design tips.

Graphics credit: Canva

Comments are off for this post.

  • The first design kept me engaged for a while. A fine example how negative space can be used to perfection.