A typographic grid is a two-dimensional structure made up of a series of intersecting vertical and horizontal axes used to structure content. The grid serves as an armature on which a designer can organize text and images in a rational, easy to absorb manner. The less common printing term “reference grid,” is an unrelated system with roots in the early days of printing.
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History
Antecedents
Before the invention of movable type and printing, simple grids based on optimal proportions had been used to arrange handwritten text on pages. One such system, known as the “Villard’s diagram,” was in use at least since mediaeval times.
Evolution of the modern grid
After World War II, a number of graphic designers, including Max Bill, Emil Ruder, and Josef Müller-Brockmann, influenced by the modernist ideas of Jan Tschichold's Die neue Typographie (The New Typography), began to question the relevance of the conventional page layout of the time. Max Bill ( 22 December 1908 &ndash 8 December 1994) was a Swiss Architect, Artist, painter, Emil Ruder (1914–1970 Swiss typographer and Graphic designer, who with Armin Hofmann helped to found the Basel School (Schule für Gestaltung Basel and a graphic Josef Müller-Brockmann, ( May 9, 1914 – August 30, 1996) was a Swiss Graphic designer and teacher Jan Tschichold ( April 2 1902 Leipzig, Germany &ndash August 11 1974 Locarno, Switzerland) was Page layout is the part of Graphic design that deals in the arrangement and style treatment of elements (content on a page They began to devise a flexible system able to help designers achieve coherency in organizing the page. The result was the modern typographic grid that became associated with the International Typographic Style. The International Typographic Style, also known as the Swiss Style, is a Graphic design style developed in Switzerland in the 1950s that emphasizes The seminal work on the subject, Grid systems in graphic design by Müller-Brockmann, helped propagate the use of the grid, first in Europe, and later in North America.
Reaction and reassessment
By the mid 1970s instruction of the typographic grid as a part of graphic design curricula had become standard in Europe, North America and much of Latin America. The graphic style of the grid was adopted as a look for corporate communication. In the early 1980s, a reaction against the entrenchment of the grid, particularly its dogmatic use, and association with corporate culture, resulted in some designers rejecting its use in favor of more organic structure. The appearance of the Apple Macintosh computer, and the resulting transition away from type being set by typographers to designers setting type themselves resulted in a wave of experimentation, much of it contrary to the precepts of Tschichold and Muller-Brockmann. The typographic grid continues to be taught today, but more as a useful tool for some projects, not as a requirement or starting point for all page design.
Grid use in modern web design
Web developers have only recently started to show a real interest in grid systems. Why it has taken so many years for web developers to become interested in something, that has been essential to the written medium in general since the 30s, is hard to say - the technology, namely HTML and CSS, has been around for a while, but has only recently been applied to the implementation of grid-based layout systems for web pages. HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant Markup language for Web pages It provides a means to describe the structure
- Designer Mark Boulton has written a tutorial on the subject of grid use in web design.
- New York Times design director Khoi Vinh used the typographic grid in the design of that publication's online version, and wrote an article about the process. Khoi Vinh is the design director for The New York Times website since 2006
- A simple framework called Blueprint has been developed, for implementation of grid-based layout in web pages. A framework is a basic conceptual structure used to solve or address complex issues
- Another simple CSS grid framework is the 960 Grid System by Nathan Smith, who explains the rationale behind it on his blog.
- Grid Designer is a visual grid and typography design tool that works in most standard web browsers.
- An article by graphic designer Antonio Carusone on how to design grid systems for Flash.
- A Photoshop file which serves as a starting point for grid-based web design
See also
References
- Baines, Phil and Haslam, Andrew. The canons of page construction are a set of principles in the field of Book design used to describe the ways that page proportions margins and type areas ( Print spaces Type & Typography, second edition. New York: Waston-Guptill Publications, 2005. ISBN 0-8230-5528-0.
- Burnhill, Peter. Type spaces: in house norms in the typography of Aldus Manutius. London: Hyphen Press, 2003. p. 101.
- Elam, Kimberly. Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type. Princeton Architectural Press: 2004. ISBN 1-56898-465-0.
- Hochuli, Jost. Designing Books: Practice and Theory.
- Hurlburt, Allen. Grid: A Modular System for the Design and Production of Newpapers, Magazines, and Books. Wiley: 1982. ISBN 0-471-28923-X.
- Le Corbusier The Modular I.
- Müller-Brockmann, Josef. Grid Systems in Graphic Design. Niggli: 1996. ISBN 3721201450
- Ruder, Emil. Typography. Hastings House: 1981. ISBN 0-8038-7223-2.
- Rudolf Bosshard, Hans. The Typographic Grid. Niggli: 2002. ISBN 3-7212-0340-2.
- Khoi Vinh, Oh Yeeaah! Grids are good, South by Southwest Conference Presentation, 2007. [1]
- Antonio Carusone, Designing Grid Systems For Flash. [2]
External links
- Design by grid Articles, Resources, Showcase, Tutorials
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