White Aesthetic | Junk Journal Stuff

Like its opposite, black, white is technically achromatic (i.e. it has no colour) and happens when something completely reflects all wavelengths of light to give a completely blended spectrum – so scientifically speaking white is sort of all colours! A white aesthetic is often clean and minimalistic, pairing well with both gentle pastels or pops of bright, bolder colours. I love a good pastel blend when I’m playing with white aesthetics, but of course it also comes into its own as a space-maker when working in monochrome.

“White is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black.”
Gilbert K. Chesterton

White Aesthetic — created with Canva Pro

The colour white’s associations with light and clarity have made it an essential element in art, design, and cultural symbolism throughout the ages, although the actual meanings around the colour can vary enormously depending where in the world you go.

In ancient Egypt, white was associated with purity and cleanliness, with priests wearing white linen as a symbol of their spiritual sanctity. This was similar in ancient Greece and Rome, where white clothing signified purity and was worn by priests, vestal virgins, brides, and many other figures during religious ceremonies, and of course Romans famously wore white togas (often with coloured accents) as a symbol of their citizenship to the Empire. Things got a little more complex in the Middle Ages, as the colour white became the symbol of purity, divinity, and the Virgin Mary (meaning white garments were common during baptism and other church stuff) but also came to represent mourning in some European countries, such as France and Spain, due to its association with purity and the afterlife, similar to the association white has with death in many Asian countries, such as China and India. The Hindu faith also sees white as a colour of enlightenment and intellect; the Goddess Saraswati, the deity of learning and knowledge, is generally shown as dressed in pure white.

White has always been popular for transitions in art, although famous masters such as Leonardo da Vinci pioneered a technique called sfumato, developed during the Renaissance, to create subtle gradations and soft transitions between light and shadow which give lifelike quality to paintings. The Neoclassical architectural movement in the 18th and 19th centuries embraced white as a symbol of purity, order, and rationality, using it to evoke the ideals of ancient Greek and Roman architecture, which is still common even today.

In most most places today white has become synonymous with modernism and minimalism, commonly used as a focus colour to strip away ornamentation and embrace simplicity in all types of design. Modern art movements like Bauhaus made the use of white highly popular to show clean and functional lines in everything from architecture to consumer goods like cars. Even now, the white wedding dress remains an iconic symbol of purity and new beginnings in a lot of the world, while white is often used to evoke a sense of space, light, and minimalism in art and architecture.