STRUZAN POSITIVE NEGATIVE PART 1

After digging into how Struzan uses contrast in this study HERE, I wanted to look into how Struzan uses positive and negative space with his frames that hold the composition. Elements either break free from the frame (Positive), intrude on the frame (Negative), or are kept within the frame (Enclosed).

POSITIVE/POSTITIVE

Positive/Positive is when elements break out of the frame from the top and the bottom:

ENCLOSED/NEGATIVE

Enclosed/Negative strategy encloses elements in the top of frame, and elements intrude into the frame on the bottom:

POSITIVE/NEGATIVE

Positive/Negative is what made me want to write this study. Seeing how Struzan uses this technique made me think of water displacement: By taking away space at the bottom with negative space, it then “pushes” an element out of the top of frame. In the example below, imagine the red balls as “negative space”:

NEGATIVE/ENCLOSED

Elements are enclosed in the bottom for the most part besides a ship, saber and flares, but the idea holds: