The thin line was a mere 0.5 pt while the thick line was 3.o pt. On each side of the title, I added two lines-one thick and one thin. In addition, I added a series of lines that flank the title. I thought that aligning each group with “Paris”, “Firmin Didot,” and “1783” would increase the sense of order even more. Furthermore, I divided the 13 columns into 3 groups. The arrangement was still able to preserve distinction between uppercase and lowercase-there was no case-mixing as a result of a strict grid layout. Instead of two unstructured lines of 26, I switched to a grid consisting of 4 rows of 13 columns. I realized that a strict grid system would be more suitable.
![type specimen poster grid system type specimen poster grid system](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/dc/a5/52/dca552bf2ba7bc431cab1e99bc608f98.jpg)
This prompted me to radically alter the way I presented the character set. The differences were drastic, and I realized that Didot is a typeface that shines when it’s given generous amounts of whitespace. I significantly decreased the character size in the title, changed the weight to bold, and adjusted the kerning to give each letter ample room to breathe. I thought my early versions of the title looked too cramped and disproportionate. Below the character set, I was just playing around with some of the letter forms.Ībove is a screenshot of the top half of one of my iterations, mid-way through the process. This sort of unembellished layout exemplifies the clean and crisp nature of Didot. Above, I did the simplest configuration I could think of: one line with all uppercase alphabetical characters, and another line with the lowercase ones. Next, I began to explore how to incorporate the character set. The “Paris” subtitle was used as an acknowledgement to popular fashion as well-many brands include their birth-city on their designs. I included the tagline, “Fashionable for over 200 years” because Didot is used by fashion giants such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar in their logos. I had a blown-up, low-opacity ampersand in the background that would later be removed to enhance simplicity. The ideas within it, however, significantly influenced my final iteration.Ībove is a very early iteration for the title. In the following few sections, I outline the process behind an iteration that I did not chose for my final piece. It’s used extensively in the world of fashion and its dramatic weight contrasts command attention. It exudes a luxurious elegance that few typefaces can content with. Didot is one of the most recognizable modern types ever created.
![type specimen poster grid system type specimen poster grid system](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/05/d5/d6/05d5d6d11dc6bad40b27f4351dfd58ad.jpg)
I began by taking a more traditional and conservative approach to the typeface. Overall, I enjoyed experimenting with various iterations of my designs, and chose the poster above as my final composition. Each poster was required to have content such as the name of the typeface, designer, year founded, a full character set, and a brief overview of the typeface’s design, history, and context. Our aim was to showcase a particular typeface through extension of gestalt concepts, document hierarchy, typography, and color. Of course, InDesign enables you to create columns (the quick way) with margins and gutters when you create a new document, but by mastering column-grid structures in Illustrator, you can gain a real understanding of the mathematics and principles involved in creating the perfect grid-based design.Print / Adobe Illustrator / 2015 / Individual Project In this tutorial I’ll show you how to set up a column-grid structure the old-fashioned way. I typically use columns vertically, but for additional layout options you can also place rows across the page horizontally, to create ‘modules’. But one must learn how to use the grid it is an art that requires practice.Īs a general rule of thumb, the more columns you have, the greater the layout possibilities. It can be used in both print design projects and in your web designs, to help you achieve pixel-perfect website layouts.Īs Swiss graphic designer and teacher Josef Mller-Brockmann puts it: “The grid system is an aid, not a guarantee.” It permits a number of possible uses, and each designer can look for a solution appropriate to their personal style. A column-grid system is a particularly useful tool for any designer wanting to create perfectly aligned typography.