Create a Blank - Think of the Design Language

Blankness is an indispensable component of design art. Regardless of the subject matter or the conception, the blank form must be fully emphasized. The empty space formed by blanks occupies infinitely rich imagination in people's thinking. Through the expansion and concentration of space, the blank in painting art has a concept of type. Mr. Qi Baishi's discussion on "the form processing in plastic art is between similarity and dissimilarity", which shows his interpretation of the idea of ​​"type" in the abstract thinking space. Among the mountains and rivers he depicted, the vast space of space represented the space-time distance and the mystical ethereal nature. For the painter, the image of art transcends the natural image. It is to observe Vientiane with a bit of empty heart and count on black, reflecting the charm of blank art. For framing designers, the nuance of framing design is to fully reflect the book's design philosophy. When books reach the readers, they will pay attention to the book's binding effect from all aspects. The front cover, back cover, fold, material, color, format, and gloss will all directly reflect the readers' eyes. In particular, it is a cultural rendering, a concept of form, containing an empty space that can cause infinite thinking and imagination. This seems to have become an illusion of form, a collection of forms that are gathered by their own experience, sentiment and imagination, and seen in the blank. The abstract shape contained in this blank is a kind of “empty spirit” beauty. This kind of beauty, whether Eastern or Western culture, whether it is plastic art or dance, music, drama, or speech art, will leave room for imagination. Not always thinking. This is a superb artistic expression language and a profound display of artistic accomplishment. The imaginary space left by the book art through reading is a continuation of the “fantastic” in the illusion. This continuation, like other artistic categories, completes the construction of the works through the creation of forms and the expression of abstract language. The cover is the appearance of the book, which is composed of the book titles, pictures, and colors in the cover. The design of blank spaces is a special expression language for creating aesthetic tastes. Nowadays, some designers rely too much on the powerful functions of computer creative expression methods, ignoring the emotional language of artistic creation and the rich connotation space. Abstract graphics, abstract forms, and disorderly overlap of words are full of limited space on the cover, making it impossible for readers to appreciate the content of the book, and it is even harder to enjoy visual beauty. Blank creates tangible space with intangible space, transforms abstract expression in books into a kind of artistic beauty, which requires designers to have certain skills in self-cultivation, comprehensive knowledge, and many other aspects. It is necessary to pay attention to absorbing the expressive language of the art of painting, especially the freehand drawing of ink and wash in traditional Chinese painting, so that mountains, water, clouds, fog, flowers, and trees complete the overall layout of the picture in a state of “real and virtual space”. Give people endless thoughts.

The blank form is not descriptive, nor is it merely the need of the subject matter, but is formed by the abstract vision that can be felt. Through blankness, you can appreciate something higher than the shape, stimulating the same feeling as the artist. It is worth mentioning that the blank form is an art language because it has an indispensable complementary relationship. If we think that this concept of modeling just makes the “form of blank” imitate the characteristics of natural image, then the so-called blank will lose its artistic value.

Human beings have thoughts that surpass other animals, and observation has become a process of finding and capturing. It has a great degree of rational thinking and subjectivity. People's understanding of form tends to choose a simpler method, that is, to emphasize the portrayed image and strive to separate it from the background. This relatively simple understanding of the image is more prominent in early human painting. The so-called image is nothing more than the realization of the background. From the obvious relationship between the shape and the background, we can clearly see that the image refers to those black, dark, or hue-specific forms, and the empty ones are not. The place of the image becomes the background. Obviously, the "emptiness" of the background blank represents the "reality" of the image. The existence of the empty space, the existence of the real space, and the existence of the virtual space are not separate units but a relationship that is set off each other. Blankness is blended in content, and blankness is blended into the space of composition. It is the expression of figuration in abstract thinking, and is an indispensable element in the overall composition of painting and design. With blanks, there is a visual image, infinite imagination, and subtle design concepts.

The special position occupied by blanks in painting and design is an indispensable modal language and a superb performance skill. In the book binding art category, blank applications inject an "emotional" space into the book's overall design. The cover is the external packaging of the book. It can also be called an image design. Many designers nowadays are always pursuing the expression of content, applying various forms of techniques, stacking of colors and characters, and deformation of graphics. All these are designed in a limited space, namely, "carpet-like cover". This kind of design takes up a lot of space, a large amount of information, a variety of forms, and many changes in fashion, it is a kind of poor performance of the commercial pursuit of weird design, giving the reader a dazzling effect. Especially in the layout design and text density, layout, can not give the reader a comfortable mood, in the page flows a mandatory visual performance. Reading a book is like entering a maze. The result is that when the book is not read at the end of the book, it is discarded to the side.

Blankness is the best choice for creating visual aesthetics in the designer's creativity. Inspiration comes from empty space, and emotion comes from the transmission of inspiration. It is very important to create blanks where there are no gaps, to change blanks where blanks appear, and to use blanks artistically. Just like the "penetration" formed by the "hole" that often appears in Henry Moore's sculpture, it is a form itself, and the solid body is eroded by it. At this time, the shape is only the shell of some holes. In the eyes of many people, these holes have no specific content, no graceful rhythms, and subtle rhythms, but they can make the work more profound and expressive, so the use of blanks often reflects the personalities of an artist. style. Book design is a visual transmission process. Reading needs are pleasant and comfortable, not an inexplicable sense of oppression. This is an indescribable human design. Laozi said: "They will not bend, but will move out." In the Qing Dynasty, Zhai Zhongguang said: "Compared with reality and reality, no paintings are in Wonderland." The poet Ouyang Xiu has a small poem: "The cool night is blowing thousands of flowers, the road is dark and fascinating, 100 kinds of flowers are on the way. "Customer thinks of home." It precisely conveys a "space" wonderland. In the design, it shows a kind of silent beauty. To draw things that cannot be depicted without the blankness of the paintings is to really improve the artistic realm. Cleverly combining the flow of “virtual” and “real”, any of the imagination of the viewers swims in the emptiness, “transforming falsehoods and realizing truths” and placing real scenes on the infinite void. Art has created a good visual space and a wonderful emotion. At the same time as reading, inadvertently, accompanied by the visual movement to evoke the excitement of reading, this is a perfect stage, it is a modality with state space, and the blank concept is also true.

Jin Ming, Liaoning Fine Arts Publishing House, Associate Editor

Source: "Decoration"