OUGD403 Studio Brief 2 - Research

OUGD403 Studio Brief 2 - Research

For research into producing my chosen letterform into a digital alphabet, I researched into grids, layouts and compositions. As I have to produce a grid which will assist me in creating my letterforms, I researched into the different types of grids and how they are used in context. In addition I looked at my chosen typeface of Vignelli's six - Futura and its gird. I tried to create one using the letters I had on paper, but when I looked into the actual grid of Futura, it was a lot more complex then mine. However all of the research has proved useful as I wasn't aware tat typefaces were developed from grids, as I have already designed my letterforms, I can now form a grid and adjust them to fit within the grid. 

Grid Research 

The Grid made it possible to bring all the elements of design, type, characters, photography, drawing and colour into a formal relationship to each other; that is to say, the grid system is a means of introducing order into design. Designers use modernist grids to create unity among elements in multi-page publications. The grid defines possible sizes for images and text, proportional relationship, and alignment that bring harmony to disparate elements in the same visual space. Consistent placement and hierarchy amongst information components maintains continuity for the reader from spread to spread and from issue to issue of the same publication. Throughout design history, designers have based grids on perceptions of optimal proportions-such as the golden section, in which smaller divisions of space are proportionally identical to the dimensions of the larger space. Document-design software programmes, such as Adobe InDesign, are based on the grid, and therefore embed modernist design principles in their features and functions.' - Meredith Davis: Graphic Design Theory, p.147

Canons Principles of page layout design used to measure and describe proportions, margins and print area. 

Tschichold - Gold Ratio

Tschichold - Octavo

Van de Graaf

Fibonacci
Fibonacci sequence ratio 8:13 links to Golden & Golden Ratio section. This sequence is not only evident within design but also nature.

1.62 & 8:13
Forms the basis of paper sizes and its principles can be used as a means of achieving balanced designs. Many ancient cultures from Egyptians to the Greeks used this thinking to gain beautiful designed proportions. *Fibonacci sequence ratio 8:13 links to Golden section 

The human face follows the ratio and we find people whose faces are truer to the ratio more attractive?Classic Renaissance masterpieces, architecture from antiquity, and even human body parts are proportioned based on the ratio down to the fingers themselves.

Book & Newspaper Grids

For additional research, I looked at books and magazine and the grid systems in these. One example was comparing the grid systems in Vogue May 1961 and January 2014, and how the grid, layout and compositions were kept traditional and are quite similar. However I would say that the more recent additions of Vogue have new grid systems that allow more text to compact the article to leave more room for advertisements. In addition I found books specifically on grid systems that gave me more of an insight into different grids and compositions.