Grid Research - OUGD403

The grid is an inte­gral part of book design. It’s not some­thing that you see. It’s just like under­wear: you wear it, but it’s not to be exposed. The grid is the under­wear of the book.

– Massimo Vignelli

Primary Research 

As part of my research I deconstructed a front page of Vogue magazine and The Times newspaper. I very roughly pencilled out the grid around the main contents of the page. It is quite difficult to recreate the actual grid used but this game me an idea of the structural foundation of the grids used for these publications.  

Secondary Research 

The book 'Making and Breaking the Grid' was one of the best resources I found for researching grids. 

As I began my research into grid theory, I first looked at the basic terminology...

Brief notes of terms: 

Columns- sometimes different widths corresponding to specific information.

Modules- individual units of space separated by regular intervals. When repeated create columns and rows.

Maker- placement indicators of subordinate or consistently appearing text e.g. section titles. Only occupies one location in layout.

Spatial Zones- groups of modules, form distinct fields, can be assigned a specific role for displaying info, image and text.

Flowlines- alignments that break the space into horizontal bands. Guide the eye across the format. Impose additional stop and start points for text and image. 

Margins- negative spaces between the format edge and the content. Direct the eye towards content. Surround and define the live area. Define overall tension in composition. 

Basic Types of Grid 

1.   MANUSCRIPT GRID

• simplest grid structure.
• usually one large rectangle obtaining most of the space inside a format.
• usually accommodates  extensive text- book/essay
• primary structure (rectangle) usually contains body of text or image.
• secondary structure used for book pages, titles etc 
• Designers can add interest by adjusting the margins, creating an unusual layout. 

Basic form 

Grid in practice 

2.  COLUMN GRID

• Good for presentation of discontinuous information (quotes, information, titles, images, captions statistics etc) 
• Dependant columns- elements run through more than one column.
• Independent- element stands alone in a single column. 
• Flexible - column widths can be adjusted, columns can be shared etc 
• Width of column depends on size of text.
• Column should accommodate a comfortable measure for reading text and should also avoid excessive hyphens. 
• Vertical flowlines allow designer to accommodate unusual breaks in text. 

Basic Form 

Grid in practice 

3.  MODULAR GRID

• Similar to columns but with horizontal divisions marked by rows. 
• Creates grid of cells and modules. 
• Required for complex projects which column grids cannot solve. 
• Modules create spacial zones which give freedom to designer to add image and text in a variety of formats.
• Ideal for charts, data, forms and course tables. 
• Smaller modules can be used for a more detailed, precise grid layout. (however, if modules are too small the grid becomes less practical).

Basic Form 

Grid in practice 

4.  HIERARCHAL GRID 

• Sometimes the visual needs of a project require an odd grid that doesn't fit into a category. 
• These grids conform to the needs of the information they organise. 
• Based more on intuitive placement of alignments.
• Column widths tend to vary.
• Usually found on webpages. 
• Development often spontaneous.

Basic Form 

Grid in practice 

Further Primary Research 

I had never considered grids in nature until our tutor mentioned it. So, to further my research I began to create grids over a variety of natural things. Its impressive how most of these grids were very symmetrical. 

Natural Grids 

Grid of a human face

Beetle grid

Flower grid 

Typographic Grids

Recently, I have been experimenting with making a grid for my own typeface. I have found this particularly confusing. It has been easier for me to create my grids on the computer as it is far neater and I can quickly change the letters to check it fits the grid. To understand the curves used in the font Bodoni, I overlaid all the curved letters with a lower opacity to see which curves matched up. I am now going to pencil over the curves to simplify the grid. 

Below is a version  of my typeface I created using the grid above. In order to create the repetition I drew 6 thicker lines. 3 horizontal and 3 vertical. The letterform lines up against these lines to place the letter in 3 different places.