| May 30 |
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A friend of mine recently recommended a technique called design by grid to me. I must say that I am very impressed with this technique. For some time now I have been looking for a real strategy for laying out design elements.
Designing by grid has been around since the early days of the printing press. It is surprising, in fact, that it has taken so long to find its way into the web design world. Perhaps it got lost in the excitement during the early years of the internet, when people were more concerned with getting their .com up and running as soon as possible, rather than the subtleties of design. Certainly it’s still far from a standard practice in web design.
For one thing designing by grid helps me combat my fear of a blank canvas. It gives me some visual structure to start off from. This is a real problem for me, as I think it is for many designers. Getting good design ideas time after time is always a challenge and, just like beginning a novel, the first aspects of a design are always the hardest to decide upon.
In addition, I’ve found that design by grid helps people absorb my designs visually, making them somehow better. I find my designs are becoming more and more like eye candy at as I get better at using this system.
I’ve noticed though that design by grid is very geared towards certain types of websites. Many of the sites I design using a grid system end up having many columns and sometimes a slightly blocky feel to them. I hope that I can learn to apply this technique to all the websites that I work on.
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