I was instructed and trained and lectured about grids in college. Old men with razor knives and pica sticks got on my case, slapped me around and spat on me for not following logical grid arrangements on print design projects. It took me awhile to appreciate the subtle importance following these “rules”.
The average viewer can’t really put a finger on WHY these rules work, but it has to do with rhythm and pacing. Until recently, these guidelines haven’t really carried over into design for web, or rather, my understanding hadn’t really carried over. But nowadays designers are managing to apply these rules to the web, and actually see them to fruition in a browser. All browsers. And the benefits of grid systems multiply considerably on sites where “the goal is to establish a consistent, logical screen layout, one that allows you to “plug in” text and graphics without having to stop and rethink your basic design approach on each new page.”
Reading the articles below, it looks like we’re headed back to our roots. This is good stuff.
“Space in typography is like time in music. It is infinitely divisible, but a few proportional intervals can be much more useful than a limitless choice of arbitrary quantities.”
Read this:
Compose to a Vertical Rhythm by Richard Rutter
Then this:
Setting Type on the Web to a Baseline Grid by Wilson Miner
Then, behold this interesting project:
Blueprint, a CSS Framework
“Blueprint is a CSS framework, which aims to cut down on your CSS development time. It gives you a solid CSS foundation to build your project on top of, with an easy-to-use grid, sensible typography, and even a stylesheet for printing.”
If you want to explore even further, Smashing Magazine’s article: “Designing With Grid-Based Approach” has a mountain of resources and links.
