Grid

Grid
A grid is an element that breaks space or time into regular units. It can be simple or complex, specific or vague, tightly defined or up for interpretation. A grid system is used to arrange content within the space of page, screen, or otherwise a constructed environment. Grids are created in response to content and the allotted size available (the page, screen, etc.). An effective grid is not one that is a rigid formula, but rather a flexible structure…or as Ellen Lupton implies, a grid is to content as a skeleton is to the human form with muscles being information.

Grids are attributed to the framework of typography beginning with the letterpress, rulers, guides, and coordinated graphic systems. A typographic grid is a two-dimensional structure made up of a series of intersecting vertical and horizontal axes used to structure content. The grid serves as an armature on which a designer can organize text and images in a rational, easy to absorb manner. Before the invention of movable type and printing, simple grids based on optimal proportions had been used to arrange handwritten text on pages. The system was known as the "Villard's diagram," which was used since medieval times. Blueprint, a CSS framework, was developed recently as web developers started to show a real interest in grid systems. It has a solid CSS foundation to build projects with an easy-to-use grid, sensible typography, and a stylesheet for printing. Aside from their background in design production, grids have also been used as theoretical tools by Avant-Garde artists in the early 1900s to create methodology for design constructed with new and rational social order. Grids can be used as frames, a means to divide space, programs, tables, and beyond. It is highly recommended to collect reading materials covering more ground than the basics of the grid being a fundamental principle of design.



Lupton, Ellen. Thinking With Type. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004. Blueprint. 2007. Google. 04 Feb. 2008.  I love typogrpahy. 04 Feb. 2008.  Grid (page layout). 08 Jan. 2008. Wikipedia. 04 Feb. 2008. 
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