It isn’t always white, and it isn’t always blank. White space is the part of your document, brochure, presentation or website that isn’t text or photos. It provides structure, gives your viewers a place to rest their eyes, and adds to your document’s character. It is also one of the most important—and neglected!—aspects of design.
So how do you use white space correctly?
Typography at the Ohio State University is easy, with three (well, technically four) fonts to choose from:
This short list makes choosing a font a snap – and it’s a lot more freeing than it sounds. Here’s a quick guide to choosing which one is right for your project.
Ever since the OSU brand guidelines were released, I’ve heard one comment over and over: “do we really have to use the secondary colors?” It’s usually not an objection about the colors themselves, but a feeling of restriction, a sense that having secondary colors will limit creativity and freedom.
The answer to that question is “yes”, but a better one is, “yes, and this is great!!”
See, as designers around the university know well, OSU scarlet is not actually the easiest color to pair with. Many otherwise beautiful shades clash, are drowned out, or turn the red to brown when put next to it. The secondary colors are guaranteed to go not only with the famous scarlet, but also each other – which is extremely important when making a compelling, professional advertisement for your group or program.
Plus, University Communications allows use along the entire color range of each matching shade. If you haven’t had a chance to look at them yet and see how very many colors there are, check out the extended color section of the branding site here. At 13 colors with 19 options each, plus six accepted shades for OSU red, that’s more than 250 colors to choose from!
The question really is, “how can I choose from so many colors?” To answer that we need a little basic color theory.