Design Principles: Construction of Grids

Need to understand the requirement and context of the grid

Consideration of type, text and illustration, print method and stock quality

Always start with smaller sketches and thumbnails- streamlines production

Before drawing, consider amount of columns

• Is it going to be text or image heavy?
• Don't restrict yourself to 1 column
• Logically, 2 columns minimum as they give you more scope and variation

• It's possible to sub-divide columns, e.g.. 2 columns into 4 columns
• 3 columns gives the opportunity for arranging  and accommodating stats, figures and text of numerous sizes

Disadvantages

• Small typefaces are a necessity
• Columns will be narrow- but these solely rest on the columns function

Stats, Figures, Graphs and Trend Line Publications- Use 4 columns per page

• Sud-dividing these is convenient for representing stats

The width if a column dictates the size of the typeface used

• The narrower the column, the simpler the typeface

Thumbnails and Developments

• Start with small ones, select a few and try them in a bigger size- preparing the ground work and can see difference in spacing visually

Applying Type to Columns

• Top Line must be flushed to the top Limit
• Bottom line must fit to the bottom Limit
• Use text line for guttering- This allows for images and text to be aligned

Font Heights

• Caption text underneath images
• Header and Footer text if necessary
• Text should fit inbetween a gutter line perfectly
• Or use the Fibonacci sequence to have an equal, complimenting point size

Type and Picture- 8 Grid Field and 20 grid field

• Based on an A4 Format- used for brochures and advertising
• Using 8 means that you can sub-divide to 16
• 16 to 18 grid fields give you a range of possibilities
• You need to have good proportions of grid skills and shows various sizes of illustration

Grids are an instrument that only a designer can make interesting and balanced designs

20 field grids give quite a large scope for idea solutions- its ideal to start with and space to work with.

From this, we went onto looking at how to construct grids in InDesign

By selecting the number of columns you want when selecting the options you want for your new document, it will produce columns ready made for you.

Manipulating Margins and Column Numbers

However, it is more fulfilling to stick to just one column on one page as they you can manipulate the margins and columns for yourself. Using the margin and columns option, you can select the sizes for each of the margin sides so that it aids the personalisation of each layout page. This means that, instead of having every page with the same margins, they can all be different.

Creating Gutter Lines

Just like the margins, you can also manipulate the gutter sizes. Using the Create Guides option, you can choose the sizes so that you can have a considered spacing between any images and text on the page.

Study Task:

Each table was put into a group and were asked to find the answer to 6 different questions. From the question given, we have to be able to come back and present to the rest of the groupd what our answer is.

The question that my table was given was: What is the Golden Section?

Calculation for the Golden Section

The Golden Section is a mathematical constant that is usually represented by the greek character 'phi'. When a is larger than b, (a+b) divided by a gives the golden ratio. It is the equivalent to 1.618033987 which can be shorted down to 1.61.

Proportion of Rectangle in the Golden Section

By using this equation, the equation can be applied to a rectangle which then produces an equally proportioned layout. By selecting the short lengths amount and multiplying it by 1.62, it will give you the length of the rectangles long side. This allows you to base your paper size around the figure to achieve an equal amount of balance within your page layouts.

Golden Section applied to Rectangle Content proportions

Areas within the rectangle can be proportioned using the golden section and this can stretch to working out appropriate body copy text and header text. If this is difficult though, you can still produce proportion through the use of the rule of thirds instead.

A useful website to look at is http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/golden-ratio-in-moden-designs/