I love grids. Coming from a school where I was trained in the Swiss style of design, how can I not? The grid serves as the backbone of organized design. It is the structure from which we hang our type, pictures, rules and other design elements. No matter what our medium of choice (print, online or mobile) the grid serves as our cornerstone and therefore, it must be destroyed!
Okay, maybe thats a little harsh. Let’s try again.
The best way to utilize and embrace the grid is to escape from it. Too often we rely on the grid as the sole provider of our layouts. Immediately going for the “optimal” 3 or 4 column designs, without thinking about content. We end up with designs which, while addressing the fundamentals of organization, look the same.
Instead, it’s time we try to escape the grid. I’m not calling for throwing the baby out with the bath water, the grid is useful. Lets continue to use it for the grunt work: organizing the information in a clear concise manner. Once that’s done let’s look to escaping beyond the implied structure of the grid to create a unique experience. Not one that is just different from others, but one which provides visual interest throughout the site.
The grid is great, but it’s time to escape from its comforts. Only then are we able to fully appreciate and exploit the power of it.
Interesting that you brought this up. I’ve been thinking a lot about how people use grids on the web (and even wrote about it).
While I don’t necessarily think that we should abandon grids, I think more consideration should be used when constructing and using them. It’s so common for people to grab a pre-built column grid like the 960gs and slam their content into it without any rational thought or further justification. It seems to create a lot of the same.
I would personally like to see more experiments done with different types of grids that have been well thought out based on typography or the style of content being presented.
I agree that we shouldn’t be limited to the grids we create, but I don’t think we should abandon grids by any means (I think this is the meat of your point).
There is always a base foundation that is our grid system (every website has a grid system, even if only one column — this will always be true until we can break out of the browser and the monitor).
I totally advocate breaking outside the box (the grid) … but of course there has to be a foundation to break out from. You can’t think outside the box until there is a box.
IMO, every website starts with some fundamental baseline grid system and innovate from there. Keep your grid, embrace the grid but don’t feel compelled to conform to it to so tightly.
Great topic,
I agree with you that one should always strive to create a unique experience and shouldn’t be constrained by grids and Travis brings up a good point about constructing custom grids.
However, I feel like we’ve only scratched the surface on what can be done with basic 12col or 16col grids, and I wouldn’t dismiss them too fast.
Take the 960.gs for example, it actually allows for a lot of flexibility, allowing you to use each and every column (all 12 or 16 or them) to layout your content… But most people just use them main 3 or 4 columns without breaking out of that. People forget that a 3 or 4 column grid can be subdivided for more flexibility.
@Travis: Exactly. I think we need to go back and start creating our own grids based on the content we are working with.
@Martin:Yeah, I’m not advocating getting rid of the grid and I think your last sentence is spot on. I just feel we, as an industry, have gotten too comfortable with it.
@Alex: I feel we’ve only scratched the surface of grids in general. There is a lot to explore and it’s time to move beyond the plateau we are currently on.
Interesting article, which remembered me on the advice of John McQuade (Before and After Magazine) that we should know the rules and break them only where appropriate. He says this for the print media.
But if all designers do that, this concept will also definitely wear out. Then we’ll need to break the already broken, and may come to where we started. I think there should always be a good reason for a particular decision.
I do not fully agree, that this concept should be used to online media as well. One of the reasons is that it produces extra code, dedicated only for layout purposes. In other words - it isn’t the minimal working solution. For me everything that does more than required is wrong.
Well, Kevin, I beg to differ.
The grid is not necessarily a constraint. It allows for structure. What’s constraining is to think that one must use a template-grid, or that regular column widths are to only way to go.
Timothy Samara’s ‘Making and Breaking the Grid’ has dozens of examples of how this can be achieved, without ever putting the concept of the grid aside.
I definitely agree with your stance of pushing the boundaries and proposing different layout ideas, but this has not to do with giving up on structure.
Exploring other possibilities and designs was never a crime. If it suites your taste and passion for other designs, then I guess it’s okay. As long as you come up with another fabulous layout then you’re good.
Hi Kevin, although I think the grid is a great method of organising a design, I’m in total agreement that the best way to appreciate it is to break away from it for certain designs. Otherwise like you said, you run the risk of each website looking the same.
You’re totally right. We must at least take an effort to try new ways in terms of designing a website. Though, from time to time we could still follow the old school way.