Gridless

I always thought a grid was like a bit of scaffolding, it provides a framework for the designer to tip in the type and images and keep a consistent visual feel through all the pages of a magazine, annual report, brochure, book, website et cetera. The author's book is more a collection of interestingly designed spreads by other designers which show very little connection to the publication's grid and it seems totally absent in many of the reproduced sample pages.

If I was doing a book on using grids I would look around for three or four magazines (weekly and monthly) some brochures, website, a couple of highly visual books (like a cook book). All of them would be designed using a grid. Having selected various spreads from these for the book I would overlay the grid on each spread to reveal how the designers used the format to display the elements on the page. Each grid would stand alone on one page with the various dimensions and type specs for the different publications. The reader could look at the various spreads (and single pages, too) so that the overlayed grid explains itself.

An interesting spread in the author's book oddly appears right at the back: Quick start guide. It's an essential check list of questions any designer would ask even before lifting a pencil, for example: Is there a lot of running text?; Is it one color, two or four?; Are there a lot of elements? Section headings, running heads, charts, tables, maps?; Does the material warrant just one face with different weights or several typefaces and what sizes for text and headlines? All of these ingredients and more should be taken into account when creating a grid.

Using grids is just another Rockport light weight title that doesn't deliver what it should, they'll probably publish a similar book in three or four years time.