For my first minimalistic advert promoting the importance of reflective aids when cycling I started by taking into consideration the grid systems and white space research.

I created a grid (11 x 3) that I felt would work well for my cycling advertisement (see Figure 1). The shaded areas are the areas where the main elements of the advert will be. I intend the two square areas in the middle column to be two images of a bicycle – one with reflective aids and one without to dramatically show the difference between them.

Fig 1: The grid layout for the poster, created in InDesign.

After researching the effectiveness of white space, I know it is essential that a large area of white space is fundamental in creating successful minimalistic designs. I have ensured that the main elements of this design (the ‘figure’) take up less space than the white space/background (the ‘ground’).