Type Informing Grid

Using one typographic element to influence other pieces of the design

Let’s start with a great, obvious example. Jessica Svendsen’s poster for Exhibiting Architecture: A Paradox? is one of several breathtaking posters she created for a series for the Yale Architectural program (we’ll be speaking to another one of those posters in a moment).

The dimensional type create a vertical grid system that informs the type as well as the design of the question mark itself.

If we abstract and diagram this design, we can see the way Svendsen lets the vertical lines created from the 3D extrusion of the display type establish the grid that the supplementary text is aligned to. This approach brings a sense of order even within the sweeping lines of the question mark—you can see that the question mark itself hits many of the same grid lines that are organizing the lower section. This structure unifies the two halves of the design despite the massive difference in style, perspective and scale. This modernist style of poster quite often has “hero” graphical elements or typography and gridded type above or below, but I haven’t seen many examples that build connections between the primary and secondary elements to the degree Svendsen does with this piece.

The interplay between dimensional space and the flat-plane type below adds a sense of movement, space and scale to the design that would be lacking if the hero type was also flat.

Lessons to remember

One object can be the fulcrum for your design’s structure

Design can often be tackled in a cascading fashion. If your design is best served by a single focal point, solve for that, then decide how your type and secondary elements can relate back to that focal element.

It’s not just the type you choose, but the way you present it

Type doesn’t have to exist on just one plane, or be rendered in one dimension or in one texture. Seek ways to add variety to the aesthetic elements in your typographic work, and don’t forget to build bridges between the different styles you use.

Eric Hu, GIWYFI poster.

Eric Hu is masterful at combining typefaces and there’s often more order in his compositions than might be evident at first glance. This poster showcases two typefaces — the spindly, italicized Glossy Display, and an awkward grotesque (note how short the numerals are compared to the letterforms) that’s typeset in a way to exaggerate its awkwardness. There are several ways that Hu uses the italics here to establish structure and connect the two styles of text. Starting at the top half of the design, we can see that care is taken to match the leading of the italic to the full height of the grotesque, and in the bottom half the numerals are placed in the space that is create alongside the descending “g” in “Virginia.”

Abstracting the poster into line and plane makes the structure clearer.

Abstracting the type can help us see the underlying skeleton of the composition. The dots in the italic are perfectly round and feel overly mechanical and precise compared to the liquidity of the rest of the lettering. Because they bob up to the cap line they feel almost completely disconnected from the petite lowercase characters sunken below. They confuse the eye — which typeface do these belong to? — and bridge the two layers while serving as both letterform elements and points in space to unify the composition. It’s also a cheeky way to introduce geometry to a strictly typographic design, alongside the “+” and the squared colon. It’s a valuable reminder that typefaces contain a great deal of symbols that can serve pure graphical purposes.

Working in this way allows you to focus on one grouping of text to begin your design, and then trying to play against it as you build out layers of complexity. Because Hu already has same-color text overlapping in this design, he very easily could have chosen a more chaotic approach and embraced that interplay and tension, but instead he chose to use the positive as well as the negative spaces created by the italic phrases to complete the design. The result creates a clearer foreground/background relationship between the two typefaces and feels polished while still having the “mistakes” and messiness that prevent it from feeling overly formal or precious. This is an excellent example of “Making and Breaking the grid.” The areas where the type clashes and overlaps are more impactful because of the restraint shown in other areas of the poster.

Lessons to remember

Make cascading typographic decisions

I love that this design shows how you can work in this fashion without needing to have that “hero” element in a design. Sometimes it’s just as simple as deciding on the rough placement, leading and color of one phrase in a design and letting it be the first in a series of small decisions that ultimately lead to your end design.

Seek out ways to blend typographic elements to unify different typefaces in the same design

The way Hu uses the dots in Glossy Italic to interplay with the grotesque is really wonderful, and it’s a good reminder that many typefaces of disparate styles have little details that blend from one typeface to another. Remember what a powerful device that can be when you are mixing typefaces.

Bigger isn’t always better

Type can inform grid and structure even with imagery present, or when two typefaces of similar hierarchical importance collide. Don’t assume this can only be done with monolithic display type.