Grid Systems

Grids offer ways to organise the text and images you want to use, mainly using margins, rows, columns and guides. In the final print the grid is invisible, but adds a reading flow to the page. A great example of this is a newspaper or magazine.

Grid Systems by Kimberly Elam

This book had different pieces of design with a sheet of tracing paper over the top that displayed the different grid systems and how the layout is set. This design stood out as its used different techniques all mixed together but still had a sense of order. You can see the columns of light text going from left to right and then the bold text on the right page goes from top to bottom while being interrupted by the bold titles, again with the different grids noted on the tracing paper.

The design on the page to the left is from Herbert Bayer, he uses the contrast of thick and thin rules that give direction to the eye and carries it down the page. The use of rules is also shown in the right image, this is the work of Willi Kunz. The rules on the left side give structure to the title while the thinner rule at the top right adds direction to the layout.

Here is work by Jan Tschichold. The tracing paper that covers over it shows a direction that your eyes travel in, this is formed from the rule that underlines the top left title, the bold title on the left and the smaller vertical rule towards the bottom in the middle. Then to the left of that is the name of the type used, this is displayed vertically adding direction to the right.

This use of a grid shows images displayed over text with the opacity manipulated. This could be an interesting way to display an infographic.

Layout by Ambrose & Harris

These pages show module based grids, the left is an asymmetrical module based grid and the right image has been split into 16 smaller fields - this offers more decisions when placing your content. 

This shows a symmetrical grid which is based on proportions instead of measurements. Each page is a mirror of the opposite, this gives two equal inner and outer margins. This allows marginalia which are annotations and comments that are made in the margins. 

I feel that the use of grid aids readability massively. The book, Grid Systems by Kimberly Elam gave me understanding on the visual hierarchy and how to use headlines, subheads, body copy and rules. I found that the use of white space within grids is also an effective tool, this was highlighted in the Layout book by Ambrose & Harris. The use of a module based grid when displaying images gives you a choice of options, you can use some of the blocks to add focus on the body copy by leaving them blank. The emptiness of white space draws your attention to the nearest thing.