Foundations of Design: Part 4, The Grid Applied

David Carson once famously said that he didn't follow the "rules" of design because he didn't know that there were any. In the documentary film, Helvetica, Carson says that he later found out that there was "this group who spent a lot of time organizing things and getting some kind of system going, and they saw me as coming in and throwing that out the window". Carson was referring to design principles and probably, specifically the International Typographic Style. To be fair, the audience for his design in the earlier part of his career was served well by his efforts. Transworld Skateboarding, Beach Culture, and Ray Gun magazines certainly had demographics that would have repelled anything stodgy or staid. Carson's experimental typography "made sense" to him, to put it in his words. At the beginning of the 90's, the transformation of all graphic design to the desktop computer also had the effect of putting complete control of design into the individual designer's hands. Designers who mastered the software could now do just about anything they wanted and Carson's influence was pervasive.

Also interviewed in Helvetica, Rick Poynor said that by the end of the grunge period, "typography was broken, with all rules cast aside, laying in a twisted heap". By the end of the 90's there was nowhere for design to go. "Grunge" design had little real applications or future. As has happened many times throughout history, artists and designers looked back to previous periods. Designers realized that working solely with intuition can be very risky business. That is not to say that intuition isn't used. Of course it is. It's just that we can't all design RayGun magazine.

The typographic grid is a useful tool. But there are times when it can be helpful and times when it can get in the way. I feel a student's good working knowledge of the grid is essential if they are to be a well-rounded designer. Imagine an architect working without any measuring devices, just putting things together by "eye". The novice may have disdain for something that may appear so restrictive. I think it is just helpful to have as many tools in your toolbox as possible. It gives you more options.

To understand the typographic grid it is important to understand some of the basic building blocks of typography. This is what is referred to as typographic syntax. Just as syntax is the study of how words are put together to say things, typographic syntax is the study of how the parts of a typographic design are put together into a cohesive whole. There are four parts. The first is the LETTER, the individual character. Every letter in the alphabet is unique, has its own form and design. Second is the WORD. A word, being a combination of letters, also has a distinct shape but also, as a sign, carries meaning. A word can represent an idea. Third is the LINE. Words are joined together to create sentences, but in a typographic sense they are a particular typeface a particular size, and extend over a particular horizontal length. And lastly, we have the fourth element, COLUMN and MARGIN. Now we are putting type into a two-dimensional space, where we are concerned with spatial relationships between elements, closeness to the edge of the design, etc.


The simplest grid, which many people use, is just a simple affair with margins on all sides and the page split vertically into a number of columns. The modern typographic grid takes that a step further, dividing the page horizontally also. The number of columns and rows will vary with the designers's preference and the inherent complexity of the project. The more subdivisions you have, the more possibilities there are in the design.


One of the most famous examples of grid design is Massimo Vignelli's "unigrid". In 1977 Vignelli got the assignment of designing a system for the literature of the nation's 400 national parks. The system Vignelli put into place has lasted over 30 years and still looks clean, fresh, and above all else, functional.

The UNIGRID




André Jute writes in his Grids, the Structure of Graphic Design, "The designer should regard grids as an aid to readiblility, recognition, and understanding, never as a strait-jacket. If either the text or art refuse to fit the grid, then the grid is not working. Do not force the material – redesign the grid."

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In a layout class I have my students experiment with a simple grid. They have to create variations of a layout using a main visual, a block of text, and some larger type, like a headline. Below are some examples using a poem by William Blake. The exercise is designed to use the grid as an aid in proportion,sizing, and placement.

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The following are some examples of grid-based design:



Posters by Josef Müller-Brockmann

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Jacqueline Casey, director of the MIT design services office, adopted grid-based design philosophy for all printed material for the university, in the early 60's.

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Early Swiss grid design...
Swiss Air pamphlet - designer: Kurt Wirth and Paul Beer c1950s

Next: Part 5, Current Trends

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Sources:
Meggs, Philip B., (2006). History of Graphic Design.
Müller-Brockmann, Josef (1981). Grid Systems.
Jute, André, (1996). Grids, The Structure of Graphic Design.
Hustwit, Gary, (2007). Helvetica.