Magazine Spreads on a Grid
Typography 02

Using a leading grid we had to design the first page of a magazine article.  My article was called "Open Letter to Design Students Everywhere" by Jessica Helfand.  The article would be published in a design magazine. Typographic grids control the visual organization of the page space by supplying a particular kind of structure developed for typographic organization. This structure consists of margins, alleys, grid fields, and intersection points. Grids allow the designer to codify groups of typographic information. This process of codification allows the viewer to proceed through a complex page environment, tracking information in a seamless, linear manner.

A good grid forces order onto the layout and so acts as an orienting device enabling the reader to knows where to look for information and to understand its relative importance. Just as importantly the grid works on an aesthetic level. The readers might not consciously be aware of it, but subliminally they pick up on the fact that everything is well ordered and in its place. If a picture juts fractionally into the column next to it something seems to be slightly amiss, but if the lines of text align neatly across the columns on a page some fundamental and reassuring logic seems to be at work.

The overall design should be typographically beautiful, simple without being simplistic, have a clear
hierarchy, an attention to detail. It needs to be interesting, inviting, dynamic. Only the finest typography will be accepted.