- Publisher
- Niggli
- Published
- 1981
- Shelf
- design: Systems
- ISBN
- 9783721201451
Systems
Grid Systems in Graphic Design
Josef Müller-Brockmann
The Swiss grid, set down by the man who made the case for it, in a book built on its own argument.
Why read it
Müller-Brockmann's claim is ethical before it is aesthetic: a grid is how a designer serves a reader instead of performing for a client. The construction chapters take you from a blank page through column, field and margin to a working system, the only place the method is laid out step by step rather than admired from a distance.
Why own it
The diagrams are the value, and they are the kind you trace rather than read. It stays useful for decades because a grid is arithmetic, and the arithmetic has not changed since 1961. Every design tool since has re-skinned it.
Who it is for
Designers whose layouts look almost right and who cannot say why.
Reading order
Book 2 of 6 in the graphic design reading order. See all 6
Read nextMaking and Breaking the GridTimothy SamaraSamara teaches the grid again, then shows a long run of work that breaks it on purpose and explains why each break works.Read before thisGraphic Design: The New Basics
Opens a search on AbeBooks, a network of independent and antiquarian sellers, which is where a good part of this shelf has to be found, because it is out of print.
Read next
Chosen because they argue with this one, not because a machine noticed they share a category.
