about white space

A List apart: White Space by MARK BOULTON January 09, 2007

My old direct-mail client was correct in his assessment of whitespace for his particular product, because direct-mail packages need to appear down-market to work—and adding whitespace to his design would have lent his package an undesirably upscale quality. Take the following example.

Figure 3. Examples of direct mail vs. luxury brand design
The content is the same on both designs, as are the other elements, such as photography. Yet the two designs stand at opposite ends of the brand spectrum. Less whitespace = cheap; more whitespace = luxury.

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