Off the Grid

Most of you may be wondering why I titled the blog Off the Grid. Am I a wilderness expert? Do I have my own homestead? Am I one of those self-sufficient, hunting, fishing, growing your own food, living off the land, only coming down from the mountain top to buy a postage stamp once a year kind of person? The answer is no. I only wish I was that cool. However, I do enjoy the great outdoors. Food cooked over a campfire in a Dutch oven tastes 100 times better than food cooked in a kitchen any day. Now, if it were up to my husband, we would live in the middle of 200 acres in the mountains and never leave the property. His happy place has always been the woods. I enjoy the woods too, but I also need people. Can you guess which one of us is the extrovert? We do, however, have friends who are homesteaders and they are amazing at it! We want to be like them when we grow up. Shout out to the Miles family! 

So what does the blog title mean? Off the Grid is a nod to the practice of using grid systems in graphic design. What is a grid system? A grid system is essentially a framework of intersecting vertical and horizontal lines. The lines create a grid, allowing designers to organize text and images in a visually pleasing way on the page. The grid is the designer's foundation. It doesn’t appear in the final design, however, once you become aware of a grid pattern, they are pretty easy to identify across different layouts (and it can make for a pretty fun game). Designers use columns, margins, and gutters to create this mathematical structure, which is dependent on the size of the page. 

GEM of the Hills, Fall 2015. Click the image to learn more about this project.

Once a successful grid is established, it can be used over and over. For example, a magazine uses several different grid structures throughout one publication. This ensures that the layout doesn’t become too predictable and stale. Simultaneously creating order and visual engagement is an important balance that every designer needs to learn, but it takes practice. Most people think grids are only used in print design. On the contrary, grids are all the rage! Grids are used in web design, photography, and even app and even user experience design. 

An app prototype for the Effingham County Water and Sewer Department in the state of Georgia. Click the image to learn more about this project.

A bit of history - grids date back to ancient Mesopotamia, around 3500 B.C. when scribes chiseled manuscripts onto stone tablets. The scribes used guidelines to create even spacing and straight text. Even back then no one wanted to read crooked text. The grid system evolved as technology developed. Johannes Gutenberg, a German inventor, created the world’s first printing press in 1454, which catapulted the growth of literacy and knowledge across Europe. Gutenberg also partnered with Martin Luther and played a pivotal role in the Protestant Reformation in 1517 (which we will discuss further in a future blog post). With the invention of movable metal type, grids were established to keep the letters aligned and create consistent columns throughout the

Gutenburg Bible on display in the Morgan Library by Torval Mork. Licensed from Adobe Stock.

printing process. Johannes Gutenberg’s famous Gutenberg Bible uses a two-column grid system with wide margins and a narrow gutter. This grid system allows the page to be very dynamic and well-balanced.

So now that we’ve been educated on grids, why is the title of the blog Off the Grid? Don’t we want to be ON the grid to follow the rules? Not necessarily. Last month I talked a little bit about Ms. C (Diana Cadwallader). She was one of the most amazing art professors at JSU and my mentor. I will never forget sitting in her class learning about grids. I took notes, studied different grid layouts, and came up with a few on my own. I was confident I had this grid thing down. After giving us our first grid assignment she came to my workstation, sat down, and in her very British way said, “Ugh.” I asked shockingly, “Is it bad?” She then explained, “It’s too predictable.” Now, here is something you have to know about me. I’m a typical firstborn child. I follow the rules and color inside the lines. There are stereotypes for a reason. Ms. C went on to explain that as a designer I needed to know when to follow the rules and when to break them. Boy did she have her work cut out for her that semester! I needed to understand the grid so I could move OUTSIDE of it in a comfortable and impactful way. It took me a while to learn how to do this, but that advice has always stuck with me and made me a better designer. Moving outside the grid also means moving OUTSIDE your comfort zone, and this doesn’t only apply to graphic design. This is a life philosophy people! 

Live Off the Grid! It’s more out here.

Join me next month as we talk about the importance of mentorship - what is it and why do we need it? If you have a topic you would like me to cover or if you have a question about a project you’re working on, drop me a line. I would love to chat!