White Graphics: The Power of White in Graphic Design

Eye-catching, balanced, powerful: these are words many designers wouldn’t normally associate with the word "white." But this striking collection newly available in paperback showcases a wide array of work that uses white as a central element in the design. Disproving common thinking that white is one-dimensional or limited, these innovative pieces show how the clever use of white, its different shades, and the use of negative space can make a design as vibrant as any color-centric piece.

Gail Deibler Finke a graphic design writer, has written 10 books, and is a frequent contributor to HOW magazine. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio

In a world packed with visual clutter, white space rules. From the classic Doyle Dane Burnbach ad that marooned a tiny Beetle in a huge expanse of blank paper to the all-white cover of the January 1995 issue of Wired magazine, white is an unparalleled attention grabber. Graphic designers prize white space for its connotation of elegance, for the clarity it lends to the printed word, and for the dramatic way it sets off photographs.

For White Graphics, Gail Deibler Finke assembled work by 61 graphic design studios in the U.S. (several of them in cities remote from the trendy coasts), Canada, Mexico, and Europe. While exemplary uses of white space (in projects ranging from annual reports to wedding announcements) make up the largest part of the book, she also devotes sections to white employed as a second or third "color" and the use of white in three-dimensional projects (packaging, airplane graphics, a TV studio set).

A few projects are conceptual standouts, like R&M Associati Grafici's poster for the France '98 World Soccer Championship, in which a field of colored dots (representing spectators in the stadium) forms the outline of the white silhouette of a soccer player. But most of the work shown on these pages is firmly in the mainstream--clean, bright, contemporary solutions that appear to satisfy the clients' needs and make the most of what are often described as small budgets.

Finke's nuts-and-bolts approach will be familiar to readers of HOW, the graphic design magazine to which she is a contributor. Too bad she didn't provide a more focused and historically minded introduction to such a fascinating topic. Happily, Stolze Design's inviting layout for the book sets off each project with plenty of white paper. --Cathy Curtis