What do comics and poems have in common: silence p2

WHERE DO WE FIND SILENCE?

In graphic communication, silence means the absolute blank and it is usually white or black You could think it is interchangeable with other colours yet, even a colour background is used as a statement, being black or white the absence of meaning. Colour possesses a certain musicality riling up a particular emotion. Just yellow can mean the maniac laughs of the crazy ones and green the buzzing of cicadas (for those of you who know the bug, I only know crickets). Only white or black are absolute since they symbolize death^[2]. The blank page or the blank spaces as Ballesteros states in some poems, are there to stablish the idea of passing time.

And yes, it is true it works that way. In design there is such a thing called “air”. Without air, it is hard being able to discern any element from another. Typography needs small silences called kerning to be readable. Comic panels needs lines or even thin white space between vignettes. That’s how any visual thing is surrounded by small “silences”.

The white page before the frontispiece in “well born books”. The air surrounding a minuscule poem in a big paper page —a waste of material? The air surrounding vignettes, empty dialogue ballons, the empty landscape with moving figures in manga. A logo needs air to tell us about its importance. Can you imagine Nike’s logo on a flower patterned background? Apple on a messy colourful background?

Those are logos no one would use over a messy background (maybe Nike but even then the background tends to be faded). Thus, before talking metrics, composition, and rhythm; we need to respect silence. To listen to it.

We break the silence. It is the white or black without any word or image we intrude upon. We can create silence. That black or white around the word or image to create sequences, rhythm and interest. Silence is there for us to read it.

Have fun breaking the silence. Make a haste spreading it and having the town quiet, ready for the banshee. Pasto kalo.