In showcasing your designs, adopting empty backgrounds goes a long way in ensuring the right parts of your illustrations prominently communicate your message by simply positioning clear thin lines and simple messaging, alongside honest authentic designs consumers gravitate towards. It’s noncoincidental that upon entering certain world-famous museums, a perpetual theme is the positioning of the paintings – individually displayed on a spotless wall, sometimes with the sole purpose of increasing their prominence within the gallery, without the need for pomp or fanfare. This reality depicts the effective use of clear backdrops, as an expression of a variety of design concepts. When used correctly, this ploy is often overlooked – meaning it works subconsciously on everyone apart from the designer.

The internet is awash with impatient customers of whom, if they can’t find what they want straight away on a website, they’re not always going to try and look for it, as they can find what they want elsewhere.

Conventional misapprehensions have led numerous business owners to believe that everyone wants to read everything their company circulates – which simple isn’t the case. For that reason, effective use of empty backgrounds compels the consumer to focus on the key information; regardless of if it’s a selected text, painting in a museum, an illustration, campaign or most importantly – a marketing initiative to boost sales.

All elements of a design are there for a purpose, and if they serve no function, they shouldn’t be there. Design is functional and empty backgrounds are an instrumental means to that end.

During the design process, don’t just rely on contrast or bigger text to create emphasis. You might just need to create supplementary empty backgrounds around the area of emphasis, which means you’ll need to get rid of the clutter to provide the required contrast.

As you contemplate your ideas, you’ve probably done your job correctly, if you’ve been generous in your spacing, and approached it with a clear vision of the end result – in the knowledge of exactly where to start and where to finish with your design.