The grid system in graphic design is a way of organizing content on a page, using any combination of margins, guides, rows and columns. It is commonly seen in newspaper and magazine layout with columns of text and images. One grid, or a collection of grids, may be used across an entire project to achieve a consistent look and feel. In a finished product, the grid is invisible, but following it helps in creating successful print and web layouts.

Once the grid is established, it is up to the designer when and how to break out of it. This doesn’t mean the grid system in graphic design will be completely ignored. Instead, elements may cross over from column to column, extend to the end of the page, or extend onto adjacent pages. Breaking out of the grid can lead to the most interesting page designs.

I am very fond of this grid layout as I think it captures attention instantly whilst not being too over the top. There is little information on the page keeping it clean and minimal, this will keep the audience interested as it is not too much for them to read. The colour scheme I think also works very good too as the vibrant red adds excitement and interest on the page whilst the black and white keep it from looking cheap and messy. 

This is another grid layout I am fond of as again it seems very minimal and clean. Although there is a lot more body text on this double page spread than any other I have researched, the right hand side for instance I think is too much. The small and packed body text is extremely hard to read which would not make me interested in what it has to communicate. The left however is an improvement as it also contains graphs and different scaled type which breaks up the body text. By also using vectors and different scaled type I am considering using this technique in my own double page spreads to get my desired effect.

This example of a grid layout I think is fantastic. It draws instant focus on the page, the use of the orange contrasting with the brown and grey adds vibrancy and interest to the page which is definitely something I want to try in future developments. The mixture of the illustrations and type make it have much more depth and excitement within the page, I breaks that grid boundary but still has that professional graphic design element which I am fond of.

I got this spread off 'It's nice that' website. I love how minimalistic and clean it is which I think makes more of a bolder impact on the page. The use of the large imagery and clean layout makes you pay attention to more detail on the page including the torn away san serif type feature on the right hand side. This is definitely something I want to consider in my ideas for my double page spreads.

Another example from 'It's nice that' website. Again the clean and simple minimal look has an impact that instantly captures your attention, the use of imagery on the left draws your focus on the dog. It then makes you question what it's about and what exactly its trying to communicate, making you follow through to the right hand page with the body text to find out what is going on.

This use of illustration bleeding onto both pages is something I am very fond of, your eyes are directly focused on the picture which then follow through to the title of the page 'New Norse'. As this has captured your attention enough you then want to find out exactly what message its trying to portray following through to read the body text on the right hand side. I definitely want to try a similar technique in my double page spreads as I think it kind of breaks the grid layout boundary whilst still holding that professional graphic design element.

This photograph was from a book I found in the library. Although it is not a double page spread it still has that minimal clean element look making it look successful. The use of imagery captures your attention first which you instantly recognise if your a fan of the band The Stone Roses, since then it already has your focus and interest it makes you want to read what it has to say about the band. The largely scaled 1989 I think also makes an impact on the page as people who will of grew up in that era will be interested in what its communicating in that period.

- Research - 

12 People responded to my survey, 11 being 18-20 and 1 being between 21-29 age groups. I would of liked more responses however this gave me a good insight of my age groups desires.

The question I asked was 'What would you do if money were no object? How would you really enjoy spending your life.' Considering our educational systems these days that drive the youth into more education and careers the majority of responses I got was to travel. 

Our natural human instinct is curiosity, to explore and experience more parts of the world. But of course you cant earn any money that way, therefore our society gets sucked into a system of doing things we don't like doing to earn money. A great video I found from youtube is by a great philosopher called Alan Watts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je3rQevW-cw

Using photoshop I tried to brainstorm as many words associated with 'Coin' as I could think of. This really helped and benefitted my ideas into what exactly I wanted to focus on. I thought of using coins in some form of timeline or the different types of coins you can get but I wanted to go for a more deep meaning behind the word coin itself. As coin represents money, money represents power and so on. Power can poison peoples minds making them greedy which is when I decided to focus my research on how money makes the world go round and how it effects our way of living in every way possible.

Metal objects were introduced as money around 5,000 BC. By 700 BC the Lydian's became the first in the western world to make coins. The coin above is understood to be the first true coin, lions are considered the king of the jungle therefore the design is a good symbol for kingly authority. Other countries soon followed making their own coins with their own specific value.

I obtained this information from a website about the rare viking coins:

- Research - 

12 People responded to my survey, 11 being 18-20 and 1 being between 21-29 age groups. I would of liked more responses however this gave me a good insight of my age groups desires.

The question I asked was 'What would you do if money were no object? How would you really enjoy spending your life.' Considering our educational systems these days that drive the youth into more education and careers the majority of responses I got was to travel. 

Our natural human instinct is curiosity, to explore and experience more parts of the world. But of course you cant earn any money that way, therefore our society gets sucked into a system of doing things we don't like doing to earn money. A great video I found from youtube is by a great philosopher called Alan Watts which I have linked above. It is a strong representation on how money makes the world go round and how it effects our life choices when in fact we should be deciding on what we desire most and work our way around that, not the money.