Making and Breaking the grid

Making the grid:

Grids are used in graphic design to bring precision, order and clarity.

Vignelli, who is a renowned Modernist quotes in his canon 'Nothing could be more useful to reach our intention than the Grid. The grid represents the basic structure of our graphic design, it helps to organise content, it provides consistency, it gives an orderly look and it projects a level of intellectual elegance that we like to express.'

There are a few basic grid layouts.

 

A manuscript grid is the simplest of them all. All the text on the page sits within one box which takes up almost the entire page. The grid provides no hierarchy and the text flows from one line to another. This grid is used for continuous text such as manuscripts and book layouts. 

 

A column grid is used notably in websites and magazines where text needs to be clearly separated. The grid is flexible as the columns can accommodate text or images. You can use as many columns as needed however it is easiest to limit the number to a few in order for the page to not appear cluttered.

A modular grid is a column grid, but with horizontal columns across the page also, creating individual boxes, otherwise known as modules. These modules can hold separate information, making the grid extremely flexible. The modules can be resized accordingly, with smaller and large modules alongside each other - smaller modules make the layout more precise but too many modules however can make the page too cluttered.

A hierarchical grid is a grid that relies more on intuitive placement, with the grid conforming to the needed information, rather than the other way round. One piece of information or an image may need to be far larger than any other element on the page.

The grid was a major element in the Swiss design style. But by the 70's post modernists were at the forefront of design, stretching the grid to its limits and breaking it.  

Josef Muller - Brockmann's Swiss Style poster vs Wolfgang Weingart's post modernist poster

Breaking the grid:

If you want to you can completely disregard the grid and create your own rules. A perfect example of this is the designer David Carson.

David Carson is very influential in the world of experimental typography and as art director for the magazine Raygun he produced many covers displaying his style.

Carson rejected the grid preferring to create his own rules in regards to layout and appearance. As is evident from his Raygun covers he used a basic grid to start with but deviated from it in order to create his signature style.