Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type

I really enjoyed this book. It provides a nice, historically aware introduction to design by grid systems. The book is ideal for those interested in print design, but it is also helpful for web designers as well. Mainly exercises, it will return what you put into it. The book is more of a hands on study than simple reader.

I am a web designer and a someone who appreciates good print design. A lot of books on CSS (cascading style sheets) try to explain the concept of grids, but these are usually written by people that have a great grasp of the tech side of things, but their writing skills, or ability to relate these concepts are limited. This book doesn't mention web design (so far as I've read), but she perfectly explains grids. Lastly, this book is a piece of art. It is pretty. It is stylish. It has semi-transparent overlays in many of the sections allowing one to see a page without grids. This book is special.

I agree whole heartedly with "wiredwierd"... the simplicity of presentation and clean design continue to set Ms. Elam's educational strategy above the rest of the publications regarding the use of compositional layout tools such as "THE Grid" (as my students refer to it). The clear, concise and correctly factual presentation of a few applications that illustrate grid-based compositions lead either students or instructors into the subject, without exhasting the possibilites to the point of boredom; More importantly, the visual examples do not impose the author's view on the teaching methodology of potential teachers. Enough is illustrated to bring about "Eureka" moments, and "real-life" applications by professionals provide an insight into possible creative interpretations. The visual emphasis is perfect for the target audience, since designers and design educators are inherently visual learners, and since the subject matter deals with the organization of visual information. The discussion regarding Typographic Hierarchy is much needed and appreciated since it is neglected in modern typography texts...perhaps the movement toward a more contemporary view of typographic compositions in the last few decades has lead most design authors and designers to a parallel universe where they have forgotten that our responsibilty to our clients and to our students (who will eventually serve our former clients) is to teach them to THINK about information and the results of their visual communications. I highly recommend the miniscule cash investment in this text!

This would be an incredible book for an early-level course in graphic design or typography. It looks as if Elam has adapted the notes from her own teaching into textbook form, with very successful result. As the title suggests, the book discusses only layout grids as a tool for organizing information and visual effect. One thing may surprise the reader, and that is Elam's repeated use of an exercise that looks so simple as to be trivial: a 3x3 grid, evenly spaced, and a fixed palette of five or ten specified visual elements. Your initial impression might be "Nice, but what comes after the first ten minutes?" The answer is the same thing, again and again. This works incredibly well. The severe constraints don't crush creativity. They guide it along a specific axis of design space, and force detailed analysis of that one axis. There are other kinds of exercises and analyses, too, but the recurring use of that closely constrained task is a very useful teaching tool. Another things that works well is the transparent films bound into the book. Each one overlays a layout demonstration, and reconstructs the gridlines that shaped the demo. I was happily surprised at how well the book's binding maintained registration between the printing on the different pages, with just one exception. The only reason to criticise this book would be for lack of things it never meant to deliver. Elam always speaks in her own voice, but talks to the design teacher as often as to the design student - well, teachers need to learn, too, and I think it's good for students to get some idea of what teaching is about. This book also has a low ceiling. It's meant for a first-term course in its topic, and some readers may be disappointed by lack of more advanced content. The problem is in that reader's expectations; the book meets its own goal quite nicely. This is a very good reference for beginning graphic designers, for beginning teachers of graphic design, and for self-teacher trying to learn visual organization. I recommend it highly. //wiredweird

One of the fundamental goals of any Graphic Design curriculum is to understand the enigmatic concept of the grid. When I was in design school, we were given an opaque five-minute lecture about the grid, and were then instructed to do an exercise that was supposed to teach us how to use the grid. The entire lesson was confusing, and I never could get a clear answer from an instructor on exactly how to use the grid, and so I was left to fend for myself on that matter. If only my instructors had been armed with Kimberly Elam's "Grid Systems." Elam has written a well-organized survey of the basics of understanding the grid. The book acts as a course guide, organized into five sections, or exercises. She opens the book with an introductory exercise that explains the grid, proportions, use of ornamental elements, and negative space. The exercises increase in complexity, later covering horizontal, vertical, and diagonal compositions, and finally explaining the many factors that affect hierarchy. Each of the exercises presents several options that fall within the well-considered constraints of the project. Elam systematically exhausts the design possibilities of each project with well-qualified rationale. Peppered throughout the lessons is analysis of more complex and expressive layouts designed by immortals such as Jan Tschichold and Herbert Bayer, as well as work by contemporary design firms. The analysis of each specimen is accompanied with a vellum overlay page that clearly defines the grid and compositional dynamics of the layout. "Grid Systems" strips the confusion from the mystery of designing with a grid. It teaches constraint while illustrating the unexpected freedom the grid can afford, and will surely become a required textbook in typography classes everywhere.