OUGD404 - Grid Systems for use within Studio Task 01

OUGD404

Grid Systems for use within studio task 01

History of the grid

The grid was most evident in the Dutch De Stijl movement, founded in 1917. Artists of this movement believed in the democratic and utopian potential of modular design and absolute simplicity. The Bauhaus school in Germany opened two years later in 1919. The schools guiding principle was the relationship between form and function, without any ‘unnecessary’ or decorative components. This lead them towards extremely practical grid systems. Grids became more popular in graphic design, with designers such as Richard P. Lohse, Armin Hofmann and Alberto Longhi all conforming to strict grids.

Grids are also used within the fine arts. Grids heavily featured in the Pop art of the 1960’s. for example, Chuck Close’s portrait uses a grid of cells and Gerhard uses a colour grid.

grids are now used in web design making websites easy to navigate and allowing designers to use the sae grid multiple times.

Why do we use grids?

Grid systems establish a set of guidelines for how elements should be positioned within a layout. It defines the size of the design and gives it rhythm. Rhythm is important as it helps the viewer understand where to find the next piece of information within the layout, making it more accessible.

Grids define and reflect proportion. This is particularly important in print as the proportions must be in line with the size of media. This makes a layout feel comfortable as the reader understands the context of the layout as a result of the physical shape and size of the piece of paper. in digital work the idea of reflection is less important but grid systems can still be used to anchor content back to the screen.

Grids have been used intuitively since the early days of drawing and writing, however, the use of a grid system is a relatively new invention. There is some cross over between grid systems and the golden ratio. The golden ratio determines the most pleasing set of proportions for an element, and is simplified to the ‘rule of thirds’. When combined with a grid, these rules for size, position and proportion can help ensure a layout is coherent and aesthetically appealing.

Grids exist to help determine the position and balance for a layout. This can be used to help ensure that content is presented in an easy to understand order. A grid system can also be used to highlight specific areas of content by simple breaking out of the grid. The viewer will naturally identify these break outs and be drawn towards them. This gives the designer the opportunity to experiment with the hierarchy of a layout and play with the semantic meaning of the piece.

Column Grids

A column grid is made by placing multiple columns within a format. They are good when discontinuous information needs to be presented. One column may be reserved for text, another for images and another for image captions. Column grids have a lot of flexibility when laying out a page and allows the you to separate blocks of information by putting them in different columns and yet still show a connection between them.

Modular Grids

Modular grids are similar to a column grid but with the addition of horizontal divisions marked by rows. Modular grids are good for information which requires more control than a column grid can offer. They lend themselves well to the design of tabular information such as charts and schedules.

Examples of grids

Several post war Swiss designers are the best known supporters of the grid. For example, Josef Muller-

Brockmann’s works are often composed using multicolumn and field-based grids.

Grid design by Karl Gerstner (1962)

David Carlson’s designs break the rules of the grid. his work is strikingly shredded and warped and is a source of radical inspiration.

Grids within my leaflet.

My leaflet follows this grid system. It is based off of the folds needed to create the leaflet design. This grid is a modular grid as the information will be split into each box. however, not all modules can be used because some will be outward facing when folded. This is something to consider when laying out the information in my leaflet. I must make sure the leaflet has a good flow and rhythm and make sure it is clear what information follows on from one another in order to make it as accessible as possible by the reader.