U&lc: Influencing Design and Typography

Upper and lowercase was a popular graphic design magazine from 1970-1999. In 2005 many of the designers featured in the magazine were showcased in a book compiling the magazine as a whole. The image above is from the cover of this book and is wrapped with some of the visual contents, including a variety of type.

The portion of the cover I'd like to focus on is the bottom right that says: "TIN CAN" I'm attracted to this area because of the liberal use of white space around the letterforms, most of the cover is tightly spaced in comparison. The typeface is a geometric sans serif style in all caps, and it is very thin and light. The to N's appear to be touching and create a who new shape of their own. Interestingly most of the letters are almost touching, if not intersecting, and yet there is still an abundance of white space due to the lightness of the forms. I am unsure what the message is... however I would assume they are talking about a tin can being used to hold the many tools of the designer/artist. Maybe I'm wrong though. What I do know is that I now realize you can use white, or empty, space to grab attention and suggest something is important. Also, it's possible to have a tight composition yet make it seem open by using a light typeface.