OUGD404: Design Principles - Week Three: Construction Of Grids

• Before you can apply a grid you will need to understand the requirement of the grid for the work to be produced.
• Always start with a range of thumbnails - Will make producing the final layout easier

Need to Consider

• Is it a double page spread?
• Columns - For type and for image
• Legibility

• Three columns - opportunities for arranging and accommodating data
• But it is all about the function

Disadvantages of 6 column grid

• Line of text will need to be narrow 
• Small point size will need to be used

• For Statisitics, figures, graphs and trend line publication - Use 4 columns per page
• Remember 4 columns can be subdivided into 8, 16 etc.

Thumbnails and developments

• Start with a range of small thumbnails, choose and develop a few layouts by enlarging them to scale - Enables you to see the spacing etc.

• Top line of type should be flush to top limit and bottom line should be flush to bottom limit
• Make the gutter the height of the text

Font Heights

• 4 Point Type, 6 Point Leading - Caption Text
• 7 Point Type, 10 Point Leading - Header and Footer Text

• 10 Point Type, 13 point Leading - Body Copy
• 20 Point Type - Subheading
• 40 Point Type - Heading

Type and Picture

• A4 Format - 8 x 20 Grid Fields
• 8 and 16 Grid Fields give you a range of possibilities 
• 8 Grid feils allow the varying sizes of illustrations to be portayed
• "The grid is only an instrument, in which you as a designer can make interesting designs"
• 20 field grid is the best to start using - 42 layout opitions

• It is up to you to use the techniques to create and develop your design response

 Methods of creating a grid on InDesign

1.

• Layout > Margins and Columns 

•  Layout > Create Guides

2.

•  Grid created in initial document Set-up

3.

• Create a Rectangle > Hold 'up' Key and 'Right' Key 

4.

Window > Utilities > Scripts > MakeGrid.AppleScripts

5.

• Drag ruler to top and bottom of the page > Select ruler and divide by two to get the centre point