Grid Design Exercise

Purpose

In your careers as document designers and technical communicators, you will encounter an often-used principle known as grid design. A typographic grid organizes text and images across the pages of a document. It can consist of a single column framed by margins, or it may have multiple columns. Grids allows designers to work creatively with various document elements while maintaining logical size ratios and proportions between these elements.

Task

In this exercise, you will construct a four-column grid for a document that is 51p wide and 66p high. After constructing the grid for a single InDesign file, you will then design three different layouts suitable for a technical manual. Follow these steps:

1. In InDesign, open a standard 51p x 66p document (same as 8.5" x 11").
2. Construct a grid with 1p6 margins all around, four vertical columns, and 1p6 gutters.
3. When your document appears on screen, use guidelines to divide the grid again horizontally.
4. Using the text below, create three different layouts on three different pages, all using the same underlying grid. You may use any combination of typefaces you wish.
5. Two of your layouts should use only 10-point type, while the third should introduce one additional size of type.

For more information about designing with grids, consult the links below.

Submission

You need to submit only electronic versions of this assignment, using the course Novell dropbox. Submissions should be enclosed in a folder named lastname-grid, which should include both a "packaged" version of your InDesign file as well as a PDF export. Because this assignment is due the day of our class field trip, you have until 5:00 pm to turn it in.

Use this text

Note: ALL CAPS text represents a first-level header, while isolated words on a single line represent second-level headers. Just copy and paste this text into an InDesign frame and assign styles to each category of text.

COMMON TYPOGRAPHIC DISEASES

Various forms of dysfunction appear among populations exposed to typography for long periods of time. Listed here are a number of frequently observed afflictions.

Typophilia

An excessive attachment to and fascination with the shape of letters, often to the exclusion of other interests and object choices. Typophiliacs usually die penniless and alone.

Typophobia

The irrational dislike of letterforms, often marked by a preference for icons, dingbats, and—in fatal cases—bullets and daggers. The fears of the typophobe can often be quieted (but not cured) by steady doses of Helvetica and Times Roman.

T ypochondria

A persistent anxiety that one has selected the wrong typeface. This condition is often paired with okd (optical kerning disorder), the need to constantly adjust and readjust the spaces between letters.

Typothermia

The promiscuous refusal to make a lifelong commitment to a single typeface—or even to five or six, as some doctors recommend. The typothermiac is constantly tempted to test drive “hot” new fonts, often without a proper license.

General links about grid design

• Why use a grid? - learn the reasons why grid design is a fundamental skill of any designer. One of several lessons from British designer Mark Boulton.
• Grids are good - an excellent presentation about the history and use of grids in design, by Khoi Vinh, designer of the New York Times online, and British graphic designer Mark Boulton. Pertains mostly to web work, but lessons can be adapted to print publications as well.
• Five Simple Steps to Design a Grid System - read the preface, then work your way through each of the first two steps (the final three are related to web design only):
  • The preface
  • Subdividing ratios
  • Ratios and complex grid system
• Feeling your way around grids - for centuries there has been a link between art and mathematics, but how can you quantify beauty? How can you create a formula for aesthetic appeal? Philosophers, mathematicians, architects and artists have tried to answer these questions for thousands of years.
• Design and the divine proportion - many designers, whether traditionally schooled or not, have trouble with composition. Many simply moves things around until they feel ‘right’. Don't be one of them.
• The phiculator - download your own personal device for calculating golden means.
• Grid Designer 2 - a great website for designing grids and setting type. Intended for web design, but can be used for print layouts as well.
• Design by grid - a great portal for all things having to do with grid design.

Grid links specific to InDesign

• The power of grids - grids can bring valuable consistency to your print and Web layouts. Find out when to rely on grids and when to ignore them, then put theory into practice with tips for using grids in Adobe InDesign.
• Understanding frame grids - most people know about InDesign's baseline grids and document grids, but did you know you can also set grids for individual frames?