The Grid Katie Bumatay
Contents Research 5 Discovery 9 Refinement 23 Criticism 31
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Research I started simply by looking at different layout designs. I looked most closely at column widths, how the text related to the images, and the relationships between positive and negative space. Generally, very few of the examples I saw had text in which the line length exceeded half of the page width. In other words, most had at least two columns, and a three-column layout was also common. In some, I noticed a trend where a column of text was like an extension of an image; they were the same width with one right on top of the other. The amount of positive space varied from spread to spread of each work, so that it would feel balanced throughout the experience as a whole, but some individual spreads were more concentrated and others were more empty. I tended to feel as though the wider columns, longer columns, and a higher quantity of columns on a spread was intimidating and unwelcoming to read. I also favored designs that gave captions more importance, rather than making them extra small and setting them off to the side.
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Discovery I set up three different grids in InDesign; a 4x6 grid, a 6x9 grid, and a 4x8 grid. I printed them and created thumbnails by drawing on tracing paper over my grid. I generated 8 different spread thumbnails for each grid. I then began developing my ideas into digital spreads. Once I started making layouts with real images and text, I realized that most of my thumbnails were too crowded. On a lot of the thumbnails, I had gotten stuck in the mindset of trying to fit images and text like a puzzle that often failed to leave negative space. In addition, I hadn’t thought about breaking the margins with images during the thumbnail process. When I developed digital versions of spreads, I would often take inspiration from a thumbnail, but not replicate it exactly due to these problems. I ended the first step with a few digital sketches of possible layouts From there, I tested font and column sizes, then generated multiple layouts for each image used, with gray boxes to sketch out the space that the text would fill. This helped me develop breadth of options. I picked one layout from each spread exploration, choosing spreads that I thought fit in sequence and felt balanced across the book as a whole. 9
4x6 Thumbnails
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6x9 Thumbnails
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4x8 Thumbnails
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Here I tested point size and leading. I repeated this process with two other point sizes. Note: this is an image of the file, and is not to scale.
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Here I tested column width, exploring a layout with three column, two columns, and four columns. Note: this is an image of the file, and is not to scale.
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Initial Digital Sketches
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Layout Iterations
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Initial Full Book
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I think I was successful in my discovery in the sense that I generated lots of iterations and options for myself to choose from. Having a large quantity of spread layouts made me more successful because it allowed me to see my ideas on paper rather than just imagining them in my head, which makes it easier to decide which ideas are bad and which are good. It also allowed me to think relatively, comparing one idea against another and seeing which was better or worse. However, I should have included page numbers in my iterations, or at least should have made iterations of itself. Using gray boxes to fill in where the text would go also helped because it was representative of the worst-case scenario; when it’s actually text it wouldn’t be a block. So, seeing it a block first helped me determine the the maximum amount of text I wanted on a page (up to three short columns or up to two full page columns). The design I had at this stage was successful in keeping a flow line, but I realize now that sometimes I sacrificed a positive visual quality or readability in order to do so. Some of the feedback I received was to consider scaling down the page numbers, adding a header or footer, and avoiding eye-catching breaks in the body text. 21
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Refinement To begin my refinement process, I knew I wanted to continue creating layout iterations for the spreads like I did in the discovery process. I wanted to continue that until felt as though I exhausted the possibilities (which can’t really be done, but I tried to get close). Even though I didn’t always end up using a new one, it was still helpful to see more ideas on paper, physically in front of my eyes. Two of the main factors that I based my decisions on were the following: what I thought was too much text on a page (making it unwelcoming), how easy and quick it was to know where to read at each step. These both were more geared toward function, because at the end of the day, if you have an aesthetically pleasing book that’s not inviting to read, people won’t spend time with it. My final refined idea was not the final iteration. I ended up using spread layouts from my initial exploration in the design iterations in the discovery phase, as well as some from this last set of iterations.
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Layout Iterations
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The Final Product
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Criticism I didn’t receive personalized feedback on my final product. But, in addition to the specific criticisms mentioned in the end of the discovery process, the general criticism I tried to focus on the most was that my book was generally cohesive, but also that there is always room to make it more cohesive. For example, at one stage I didn’t have footers, and it greatly benefited from me adding them, because they were a constant on each page, like the flow line. Retrospectively, I should have done more of an exploration on just the footer (or header), because I settled on one solution relatively quickly. I should have gone just as in depth with footers and page numbers as I did with the main layout of the spread. I also think that I have room to add balance and pacing from spread to spread. There is not very much variance in the size of the images that are used, and the amount of page on each spread could vary more as well. Finally, the chapter opener could be stronger, because the image is cropped so much that it loses its purpose. Overall, I learned that no matter how settled I feel about my design, there is always more to consider and room to improve. It is important to turn ideas into physical realities in order to judge them. I think I did a better job of doing this in the beginning than the end. 31
Revision for Final Review I redesigned the title page and adjusted scale on the spread with the Helvetica image. I also changed the paragraph breaks. Before, there was a space of half the leading, but that caused the lines in neighboring columns to be offset. Indenting paragraphs allowed me to maintaing that alignment.
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