I found this really simple image showing the main things I would need to know about grids to talk about them correctly.
We had a seminar about grids and we started talking about golden ratio. I love golden ratio! I even have a tattoo (as you can see above). So this is something I find really interesting. Golden ratio is basically 2:3. Its created by the golden spiral, each quarter turn of the spiral grows by a factor of Pi. The ratio is known as perfect proportions for making things aesthetically pleasing and has determined the sizes of photographs, tvs, postcards, paintings and much more. You can also see the golden ratio in a lot of famous graphic design, grids and paintings. Also the spiral is seen in waves, snail shells and a lot of other natural things. The numbers in the fibonacci sequence are shown in tree branches, flowers and galaxy spirals. Also the measurements our bodies follow are in accordance to these rules. Golden ratio is simply a natural balance.
I find it all really amazing.
A lot of people claim the spiral and its rules can be seen in famous works of art like the Mona Lisa. But there is a lot of speculation saying you could quite easily apply it to all different paintings and they would also seem to fit. Who knows maybe Da Vinci did use these rules but if not it just proves that the spiral works. The idea is it creates the perfect proportions so people being attracted to works of art that follow these rules even accidentally shows that as humans its build in our nature to be attracted to things that follow these rules. So if graphic design follow these rules you never know maybe they could become the next Mona Lisa.
You can apply golden ratio to Twitter as well and it fits pretty much perfectly. Once again nobody knows whether it was actually designed to fit this but it could be a huge part of Twitter's rise in popularity recently.
The Apple logo also fits golden ratio incredibly well. The designer of the logo has actually said in an interview he wasn't influenced by golden ratio but it might explain why it was chosen and designed like this even if it was a happy accident. It shows its a natural rule to follow when designing pleasing things. The success of the Apple branding could also be partly down to this 'perfect' design.
Canon- A principle of page layout and design used to measure and describe proportions, margins and print area.
It was pointed out other than the two designers I have already looked at another important name in grid design was Massimo Vignelli. I took a look through his book The Vignelli Canon. He says in this book that for him graphic design is the organization of information and there is nothing more helpful in doing this than a grid. He says the grid is about creating consistency and order on a page. You must choose a perfect grid dependant on the thing you are designing.
The page above shows some simple and helpful grids Vignelli uses in his work taken from the book. His book goes on to say that each project requires a different grid depending on a lot of different elements. But they are all based on the same thing, a simple grid made up of the same sized cells. It creates a perfect balance on a page.
Tabloid newspapers are pretty low class newspapers about celebrities and gritty news, they are aimed at people wanting gossip and news. The sun is a perfect example. The first thing you notice about this example above is the huge title which is a tactic they use to draw people in by visually shouting at them. The second things you notice are the bright red colour and the image the front is very visual and is made to draw peoples attention by standing out. This leaves barely any room for actual information the idea being you buy it and read inside. The overall look of this is not very classy at all but it fits the target audience well, people are drawn to the juicy story on the front and buy it to find out more, so although its not attractive design it is still well designed to fit the target audience. A criticism I have though is the columns are merged and messy making it harder to read on some of the lines quite long.
I used Illustrator to show the grid that the sun has used here. Its really simple and they barely follow it but it works for its purpose. Using a grid for a newspaper every time its printed is important, they print a new issue every day so the designers don't have time to make new grids instead they place information into ready made templates.
Broadsheet newspapers like The Times are aimed at a completely different audience. They are considered as much classier publications full of more intelligent information and interesting articles. So the layout and look is completely different. The look is much more subtle with smaller titles that still grab your attention without forcing it in your face to maintain class. There is less space dedicated to images and titles and much more space for text, its made for people who like to read a lot. One thing I read is that the perfect amount of words on a line is 7, I didn't see that in the suns layout but I can see it here. The ease to read has been considered much more here rather than just grabbing attention its a completely different feel. The whole page uses 6 columns but you can mainly see a 5 column grid system, the large amount of used columns makes sure its easy to read and layed out in a neat and attractive way.
The grid systems, layout and overall design style of the two newspapers are completely different but both are consistent to their brands, they are known for their looks and effective for their uses.
This is the Marber grid, its used by Penguin books. You can quite clearly see the influence from the secret canon and golden ratio. The grid has been key in creating a consistency for the Penguin brand and has been really successful.
As you can see grids are important for order but also consistency in all different types of branding and design.
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