Free-form grids and diagonal composition
6
The previous five tutorials discuss how to create grids around a carefully structured hierarchy of rows, columns, and baselines. This is generally the approach one would take when designing a page from a book, magazine, or brochure, but what about one-off items such as posters or pieces of packaging? It can be important to adopt a structured approach to projects of this type despite the fact that consistency across more than one page isn’t always an issue.
1 One of the simplest ways to divide areas visually is to first draw a range of boxes filled with a light tint to allow you to judge how the proportions of the available space will accommodate the items you need to include. For this example take an A2 poster, that is 594 × 420mm (233⁄8 × 161⁄2in). The poster needs a headline, a side column for a listing on the left, a box with some details at the bottom, and a grid of images on the right. Before starting with any detailed styling, create boxes to represent each of theses areas, then position and size them to achieve the visual balance of material that you feel looks right.
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