1 + 1 ≠ 2

Shooting for a more concise blog entry today, apparently 2011 is starting with a little bit of time to reflect on a few things. Let’s give the potential of a shorter note a shot!

As a designer, I incorporate the concept of the title of this post into my work. 

Here’s the concept (many designers are familiar with this in some way already):

When arranging elements in a composition or page, placing one shape, then placing a second shape does not create 2 shapes. The “empty” space actually creates a third one. This is often why we don’t call that space “empty,” we call it negative space, the interaction of “figure” and “ground,” or the foreground/background relationship.

I have been addressing this in my upcoming book. This way of describing a concept I have taught for a long time was discussed in an Edward R. Tufte seminar I attended last summer.

And here’s a more interesting application I started considering today:

“What if” this concept were applied to real life? "What if" what you “looked at” or noticed in life, were just as important as what you did not look at?

As an artist, and as a human being, I am finding my life is lived through where I put my attention, and the distinctions I make between things, because the various things in my life are just as important as what I do not have in my life. 

Sometimes I wonder which one makes a bigger statement!

That said, when the day is done, I put more weight in the relationships between the things on the page (how they interact), than the things themselves.

I think I'll put my own little twist on this little math problem—I hereby call it: "The Shape Equation."

Back to work, have a great Monday!

m