Reddit reviews Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type (Design Briefs)
We found 14 Reddit comments about Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type (Design Briefs). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
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We found 14 Reddit comments about Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type (Design Briefs). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
I have compiled a reading list to be read in order just for this question.
I strongly believe that these books will make you better than 90% of designers out there.
Level One
Start with Thinking with Type it is a really good introduction to all things graphic design. It focuses a lot on typography and it is really basic. I
Next is Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type This book takes what you learned in Thinking with Type and allows you to develope it further in a grid based system. Its good, basic, and has exercises for you to do to play with composition.
Third on the list is Graphic Design: The New Basics It will take what you learned in Thinking with Type and Grid Systems and open them up a little. You learn about design elements other than just type like scale, rhythm and contrast. It really good, and has some projects to do.
Level 2
Now You can get into more "advanced" stuff. There are a lot of books that can go here, but Ill recommend some of my favorites. Its not as important to do this section in order.
Grid Systems in Graphic Design is the bible when it comes to grids. Its german and dry as fuck, but it is basically awesome. Its expensive, but worth every single penny.
Elements of Typographic Style Not alot about grids in here, but it tells you every insane crazy thing that typographers do when they massage text.
You can look at other designers work too. Heres a list of designers I like a lot:
Stefan Sagmeister
Paul Rand
Massimo Vignelli
James Victore
Paul Sahre
Wolfgang Weinhart
Paula Scher
Tibor Kalman
Most of these designers also have books out about their life and work.
Get a sketchbook and play around in it. Draw, collage, glue bubblegum wrappers in there. Just make it a diary of your visual life.
You could also get into Visual Theory here:
Norman Bryson has a book on still lifes that awesome
JWT Mitchell's What do pictures want is great
After this, its just a matter of making a lot of really bad shit and eventually its just a little less worse and maybe one day it might be good.
Ive got more, but that should keep you busy for a year or two.
Graphic design is everywhere and at all levels, expect to be paid accordingly. Understand too that $1000 for a logo is completely relative and doesn't by any means reflect the work that goes into it. You may have a someone who whips something together in a few minutes or have a team of designers slaving away iterating on an identity for weeks to make sure it's perfect, to make sure it becomes a household/highly recognizable piece of branding.
Now on the typography I can make a few suggestions, some of these are pretty dry and not so flashy but have very solid fundamentals in them. If you go to art school (and I highly suggest you do if you can afford it, it can be a phenomenal experience) then these are the kind of books you will be reading in the first year or two.
Typographic Systems of Design ~Kim Elam
Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type ~Kim Elam
Thinking with Type ~Ellen Lupton
Elements of Typography ~Robert Bringhurst
Hope that was helpful and I'm sure lots of other people have had very different experiences and will share their stories and opinions. It's a very diverse field.
Without seeing your work, one common thing about design is that we're always looking to create a flow and hierarchy of information so that the viewer can easily figure out what to do next, or pick out the information they need to move on to their next task (whatever that is).
It goes above aesthetics because we need design to do some work.
One of the best ways to help us organize all of that is by using grid systems. You'll find plenty of books on Amazon. Grid Systems in Graphic Design is one of the gold-standards, but it can be a bit pricy if you're still in school. I have Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Design on my bookshelf and it got the job done while I was learning about grids. It's a bit more budget-friendly as well.
These are all really great books:
Grid Systems in Graphic Design
Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type
Thinking With Type
Meggs' History of Graphic Design
Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits
Don't Make Me Think
The Design of Everyday Things
How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul
thanks for posting. I think you have a great attitude, and honestly, attitude counts for more than you think.
I'll not critique the website, but, knowing you're new to the fundamentals, try to share some more general thoughts.
What sketching is important for is flexing ideas and testing compositions before going to the computer.
http://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Graphic-Design-Communication-Courses/dp/0321934288/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419898490&sr=1-1&keywords=stop+stealing+sheep
http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Version-Anniversary/dp/0881792128/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419898879&sr=1-1&keywords=robert+bringhurst
http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419898800&sr=1-2&keywords=typography
http://www.amazon.com/Grid-Systems-Principles-Organizing-Design/dp/1568984650/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419898762&sr=1-1&keywords=kimberly+elan
http://www.amazon.com/Systems-Graphic-Systeme-Visuele-Gestaltung/dp/3721201450/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419898837&sr=8-1&keywords=grid+systems
http://www.amazon.com/Black-White-Photography-Manual-Revised/dp/0316373052/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1419898921&sr=8-2&keywords=black+and+white+photography
and
Above and beyond the basics, I see your passion is impacting the world through design. So the question becomes HOW can graphic design impact the world, and does it at all? and what can you make or do directly? I think above all, a designer is an entrepreneur these days. Especially with that main driving passion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_(page_layout)
A grid is setting up a layout on the page that creates hierarchy and order to the content in a consistent way.
Good books:
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Breaking-Grid-Graphic-Workshop/dp/1592531253/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300584269&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Grid-Systems-Principles-Organizing-Design/dp/1568984650/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300584269&sr=1-2
http://www.amazon.com/Systems-Graphic-Systeme-Visuele-Gestaltung/dp/3721201450/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300584269&sr=1-6
I've found all of these books to be helpful. I think you mainly would find the Grid Systems book useful.
Grid Systems by Kimberly Elam is a pretty good reference for using grids and better understanding composition. It has alot of examples of works that are accompanied by transparent pages that have grids to lay over them.
Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton helped with just understanding typography better.
Designing Type by Karen Cheng is good for understanding the intricacies of type and the differences between different typefaces by using grids.
> However, do you think my idea of left-right-left layout is aesthetic or at least interesting?
Sure! You can get weird with type layout, but that’s a solid choice. This page has a few more examples.
> Do you suggest googling "horror/scary fonts" and experimenting?
No. Baskerville is a classy, timeless font. If you try to convey “spooky” with a typeface, it’ll probably come across as corny/miserable reading. Keep Baskerville, but convey spooky with colors and possibly texture that don’t affect the reading experience. You could also try getting weird with text animations.
> I love those typography hacks! Do you have more?
A quick 10-minute read has a few more tips: Typography in 10 minutes. Beyond that, it’s probably time to buy a book on typography like this or this. Sadly, there just aren’t any online resources or articles that match the quality of old-fashioned printed material when it comes to type layout.
If you want to get more in-depth with grids and layouts you should check out Grid Systems by Kimberly Elam. It has a lot of explanations on what different layouts and grids accomplish and includes pictures of grid-based layouts with a transparent page with that layout's grid overlaid on the image (i.e. there's a transparent page with just the grid and the next page is the actual image).
It's really helped me out in certain designs and in general is an interesting book.
Look for books on grid design (here's a simple one I own), check out some magazines with good design (wired, espn) and watch framing and color use in high end commercials, billboards and print ads.
First, I would study some basic design principles. Look at a few books on typography, grid, etc. Learn about some of the major design movements.
Check out these book:
http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Principles-Design-Revised-Updated/dp/1592535879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299115160&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Grid-Systems-Principles-Organizing-Design/dp/1568984650/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299115186&sr=1-7-spell
What tends to happen is most people dive into these tutorials knowing how to use the programs, but not knowing anything about design in general. Knowing how to use Photoshop doesn't necessarily mean you are a designer, like knowing how to play a few chords on a guitar doesn't necessarily make you a musician.
Web design is big now, but if you want to hop on the next gravy train, I'd suggest getting into Mobile / Tablet visual design. The demand is hot and theres not enough people who know how to do proper visual design for touch screen devices.
Oh yeah, and Lynda.com and tutsplus is good too. Learn the programs, but don't expend too much energy learning fancy lighting tricks until you've learnt the basics of design. It'll help build a foundation on which you can go from there.
Basics Design: Layout
Basics Design: Typography
Basics Design: Design Thinking
Basics Design: Image
Basics Design: Colour
Basics Design: Grids
Thinking With Type
Making and Breaking the Grid
Grid Systems Principles
The next few aren't so much technique books but are good reads.
Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design
Damn Good Advice: For People With Talent
The Vignelli Canon
It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be
The book Grid Systems by Kimberly Elam is amazing and extremely useful in understanding design. Available on Amazon here. I can't recommend it enough.
yes, and/or Elam's http://www.amazon.com/Grid-Systems-Principles-Organizing-Design/dp/1568984650/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248720042&sr=8-1
Grid Systems
understanding and having good grid skills is pretty much foundational and essential.