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• • Design that Pops
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• • Get That 3D Look Without Breaking Your Budget
• • Boost Your Marketing Prowess with Perfect Postcard Design
• • 5 Ideas to Spark Those Creative Juices
• • 5 Ways to Toot Your Own Horn
• • A Metaphorical Idea
• • 5 Must-Haves in Every Layout
• • Trim the Fat: What Your Logo Doesn't Need
• • Timeboxing: An Outline for More Efficient Design
• • Paragraph Indicators - Make A Dent in Your Universe
• • Designing for Color-Blind Viewers
• • Add Sparkle With the Symbolism Tool
• • Grab Them Right Out of the Gate
• • Depicting Time and Motion with Design
• • When Color Matters
• • Design That's Easy as A-B-C
• • Eye-Teasing Design
• • Variation on a Theme
• • Room to Breathe
• • Low-Cost Clip Art and Images
• • Typographical Terms
• • Breakthrough Brochures
• • The Risk of Over Designing
• • Successful Newsletters How-To
• • Do-It-Yourself Letterhead

Room to Breathe

One of the most common pitfalls in design occurs when text is squeezed into borders and boxes, or wrapped too tightly around illustrations or silhouetted photographs. Next time you are faced with the challenge of creating sufficient breathing room in your designs, remember: there is beauty in simplicity. Compare the following examples of crowded vs. comfortable designs:

Here are some simple solutions on how to avoid the claustrophobic, unappealing feel of crowded design:

• Increase the size of the border or box.
• Increase the size of the margins on the edges of the page.
• Add more breathing room around individual elements by increasing the white space in text wraps.
• Decrease the font size, or cut back on text when possible.