#icelance

I woke early on Wednesday 4 Nov to plough through some freelance work to help clear the decks and my mind. It was at this moment that I noticed the milk carton in our Airbnb apartment.

Positive and negative space. Simultaneous ideas that frame and ground one another. It might be a swift resolution of the two, but we see one idea before the other. In this instance, groggy at nothing o’clock in the morning, I first saw the milk sloshing that had been drawn using the natural colour of the carton using positive yellow space to frame it. In turn, this positive space becomes the negative space in and around the letters “Muu, 1 litri”.

In most cases, I think it’s normal for us to see the positive space first (i.e. what’s been actively drawn), then solve the visual pun as the negative space (passively drawn) also makes sense, or catches up.

Artists who use positive and negative space to create these visual puns, like Jason Munn & Noma Barr, are my true creative heroes. Always have been! Yet somehow I managed to overlook them till now! All too often it’s the simplest ideas which are the best.

On Thursday we went to see John Grant with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra (this is going somewhere). When he performed Glacier, I started thinking about how a glacier and a valley are both positive and negative spaces: a glacier is the positive space that carves the negative space of a valley; a valley is the positive space that resists, or restrains the glacier’s negative void creating impact. These two typographic experiments came to mind which I sketched later:

SO! Back to the brief: produce motion work that considers your influences, interests and enthusiasms, as you begin to form a creative position. Put another way, personally and in context:

Why do I love positive and negative space’s usage in visual puns? What makes it so effective? Because, let’s face it, Monty, that’s why you love it and why you try to capture it in your own work wherever possible and appropriate.

I broke it down into three stages:

Impact. To attract viewer’s attention, the image needs to be instantly appealing.

Curiosity. To retain viewer’s attention, the image needs to provide an unknown.

Solution. To reward the viewer’s attention, the image needs to provide satisfaction, like a magic-eye poster.

Running parallel to this sequence, I decided there are two rules:

Balance simplicity and complexity. Too easy, and the viewer it bored at best, but it could also be patronising. Think children’s toy adverts!

More than one simultaneous idea. Positive space might show a house, for example, but what’s the hidden message? Hence curiosity.

Looking at what my brain had dumped on the page through a pencil made me think of a short race between two sprinters. However, not a typically competitive race.

Race Concept

Impact: Bang! goes starter pistol. I’ve noticed the race and I’ve taken the bait, what’s happening here?

Curiosity: One runner leads (the actively drawn, instantly recognised idea represented by positive space) but we fixate on the runner lagging behind (passively created, unfathomed idea represented by negative ‘white’ space); why are they back there? Attention retained.

Solution: Leading runner allows lagger to catch up. They can only win this race simultaneously. They break through the finish-line together, the penny drops; victorious!