Grid
Structure you should not notice
A grid is the decision that lets type, image and margin hold a relationship. It is not a pattern printed on the page. When it is working, the work looks inevitable.
- Intended perception
- Ordered without being bureaucratic. Quiet confidence.
- Visual architecture
- Twelve columns on the page, four on a phone. One gutter. Margin is a structural member, not leftover. A plate occupies columns; it does not float.
- Typography
- Body type sits on a baseline. Captions lock to a column. Display type may break the grid; body type may not.
- Colour
- Hairlines in the colour of the rule. The grid is never a colour story, and it is never shown as decoration.
- Strongest applications
- Lookbooks, guidelines, stationery, signage layouts, the website.
- Risk
- A visible grid becomes a student project. An ignored grid becomes a pile.
Three systems
Twelve units, a gutter, a margin. Type occupies some columns and leaves the rest. Emptiness is assigned, not leftover.
Lines of type share a secret horizontal. Captions, body and rules meet. Nothing hovers.
A plate takes a span. A caption takes another. Comparison is designed because both sit on the same field.