Grid & Visual Heirarchy
A work of communication design carries its meaning through the arrangement and ordering of the design elements, as discussed in Elements and Principles. In order to achieve and communicate its meaning, a design needs visual unity, and a grid is a useful tool for this purpose. A grid provides a compositional framework through its network of horizontal and vertical intersecting lines that subdivide the page into field and interval, therefore creating a guide to establish proportional relationships between the design elements. The concept of subdividing space is commonplace in our culture; our houses and apartments are divided into rooms, our drawers are designed with divided compartments to separate our things, the post office sorts mail into divided rows of boxes. Subdividing space is a traditional organizing principle.
The structure of a grid should emerge from the analysis of the visual material that has been gathered or generated to use in the design. The grid will allow considerable flexibility in arranging many disparate elements within any given two-dimensional environment. The grid can sit behind the design and be invidible in the finished design, or it can be visible to use as a design element. The grid is an absolute necessity when there are multiple pages, such as publications where each page or spread requires a different layout due to tis content. If the grid is well conceived, it provides a fast and easy way to create multiple layouts that maintain a visual unity.
Another organizing principle that supports unity in a design is visual hierarchy, as mentioned in Word & Image. The term visual hierarchy refers to the arrangement of visual elements according to their order of importance within the message or information being delivered. It is especially needed when handling complex information containing a mix of text and images to establish a hierarchy of the information and insure the readability of the message. Hierarchy in type can be suggested by emphasized type first. When this structure is provided, even the most passive viewer can gain some knowledge by quickly glancing over the text.
