Four Fifths Design

Designer: Jürgen Heckel & Matthias Heiderich

I’ve always been a proponent of negative space when it comes to design in general. I feel it allows for clarity, question, and a sense of meaning. The elimination of elements, obstacles, distractions, focal points, etc. hones the mind into believing it might be missing something – “not getting it.” It’s when the viewer or user is at this point that he or she begins to question why? What is it that someone else sees and I cannot? This feeling of isolation, lonesomeness, perhaps unintelligence is what drives the viewer or user to then attempt to look deeper in hopes of finding something that makes sense, has an impact, or conjures up a reaction of any sort that is relevant to the experiences or senses the viewer or user is most familiar with.

I believe black and white are at the forefront of the beginning of such emotional processes. I feel they blatantly ask the viewer or user to take a risk. It’s almost as if the absence of color as well as the combination of the whole spectrum are the two sole forces that alone dare our eyes to make decisions we are almost always hesitant to make.

In celebration of this little bit of thought, I’ve collected two separate series. One that incorporates a shift towards light. One that incorporates and overwhelming sense of dark. And both include elements that are elemental, simplistic in their display, and only accentuate the need for asking the almighty question: why?