Grid Reading

For the reading... Where do I start?   So much information.  The history was really interesting to read 'because we touched-based on the topic in my history class and how manuscripts & art pieces show grids.  The reading mentioned history (side notes): Medieval grid (symbolic statues) the cross was an example of symbolic during that time, Renaissance & Cartesian grids (grid creates perspective/illusion) was the rise of mathematical perspective creating the illusion of spatial recession in three dimensions, the Modern Grid (appearance and symbolism) was used for practical purposes, for example, cubism or putting elements in the edge, and the Postmodern grid (show grids, composition, popular) has a more dynamic visual play to it by using the grid as a visual. There are many uses for grids and at one point there were hidden and used symbolic.  And others times the grid was used as visual.  The reading showed designers using examples of grids.  And layout concepts can be both grid and non-grid based designs.  

I got a lot out of the reading and trying to make a meaning as for myself:  lines indicate control or placement and can be used for placing pictorial composition, it has a symbolic purpose, and lines can be representational, it also create movement, and grid has been used for many years. There are many types of grids: column, hierarchical, modular, manuscripts, ...

Prj 2.

My visit to Powell (bookstore) took awhile.  I ended up looking at InStyle, Keepsakes, and Paper Craft.  The audience is targeted to middle-age women who are making memories or want to better themselves.  For my 'spread'  I would like it to make it more fashionable in a modern time.  I know we aren't suppose to think about pictures, but I can't help it and I know how difficult its going to be for fashionable images.  I do work at a retail job so that got me excited and I thought of great ideas.  The Keepsakes and Paper-Craft magazines had many images with directions/instruction  of creating templates, scrapbook pages, and craft ideas.  I did get good layouts and grid structures, but not really what I was looking for.  I did pick up InStyle and decided its what I really wanted to do.  I liked how the text and images worked together.  Type was really important compare to Keepsake magazines.  The Keepsake magazine was more friendly (the cover and images POP) to pick-up and look through quickly.  It also had more geometric shapes and out the box ideas.  The Paper-Craft used many 'finishings' but not much helpful to this project.  But the images were used well with the layout.  InStyle has an obvious audience target by using visuals, more interesting layouts, many grids and staying consisted with page after page.  Even thought each page is different by different images or type that grids didn't change and some of the layout were changed slightly.   

The educational part is like what Skyler would say "to learn from it."  Out of all the magazines I picked what I liked and caught myself thinking "what ifs."  I really haven't decided what I wanted to do with designing as a career and taking different classes help me decide what I want or would like to do.  I don't have question yet, but I'm really excited to get started.  The book was an exciting project so I know for fact that this one will be a good one too.