Get in line: meet the grid group

This is the grid group. 

Amy, Carmelle, Rylyn, and Kevin

These four have been working hard since day 1. They were on a tight deadline, as many aspects of the magazine had to wait for the grid in order to get started. Designing the grid is a big responsibility, as almost all design decisions are based on the guidelines that this group sets. They create the rules and boundaries that everyone must subscribe to, and as a result, ensure the magazine's structural integrity. Much of their work is invisible, but the publication would fall apart without it. 

Here's an interview with the grid group explaining how they went about making the grid for Effekt:

What is a grid, in the context of a magazine, and why is it important?

The grid establishes consistency and helps create flow throughout the magazine. It helps tie all the features together because it provides a set of rules for each article to follow. Not only does it create unity through out the magazine, it takes foundational techniques we have learned through out our three years of the program and challenges each group to successfully deliver a feature in accordance to specific guidelines of the columns, typography and image placement.

What was your group’s strategy for creating a grid?

We did some research together, like looking at the grid that last year’s students created as well as some professional magazines. We all agreed to keep one blank column on the outside of each page because we felt it would give the magazine a little more elbow room. We also agreed on a page size and an acceptable range of columns. Then we each worked separately to develop a grid. When we came together to look at what everyone had created, we compared fonts, font sizes, number of columns, and other visual elements.

And what did you decide on? Can you describe the final grid?

Our final product was a 10-column layout, where only 9 columns are used for text, as we felt this created a consistent “white space” on all features. We chose three fonts and then gave the class different options. We wanted to put some limitations on fonts, so the magazine didn’t seem so random, but we also wanted to present a couple serif and san serif fonts for everyone to pick from.

What kind of challenges came up when you were making this grid? 

The hardest part was finding a good time to meet together, because we all have such different schedules. As far as the actual grid, picking fonts was a challenge. Everyone in the class is writing such different features, so we wanted to give people options while still keeping consistency throughout the magazine.

What is left for you to do?

There are a few things we forgot to consider. For instance, we didn’t really think about rules for including colour in the text, so we’ll have to figure out the rules for that. Other than that, we will be making sure that everyone’s feature is following the structure that we’ve outlined in our guide. Once hardcopies of everyone’s black and white drafts are posted in the magazine lab, we’ll be able to start that.

Presenting the grid to the class

Rylyn explaining the grid

The final grid for Effekt, showing only one of the three fonts.

Welcome to our process!

Information Design students from COMM 4620 have created this blog to share about how exactly we are making our magazine. Here is a little more information about the project.

COMM 4620 is a fourth-year information design course at Mount Royal University where students work together to brand, write, and design a publication. This year, we have chosen to create a magazine called Effekt. We'll be taking everything we've learned over the past 3 years and applying it to this publication. When the project is completed, we'll have a magazine launch party to celebrate our accomplishments.

Each member of the class is working on a feature article with two or three other students. Every article explores the discipline of information design from a different angle.

Additionally, each student is part of two groups: one "page design" group and one "production" group. Interviews from each group will appear in future blog posts.

We meet as a group twice a week. Each morning, we go over our schedule and discuss the status of the magazine.

Meet Ben, our instructor.

Our instructor, Ben, presenting our current place on the schedule to the class.

During class, we take time to present interim deliverables from some of the student groups so that they can get some feedback from the class.

Discussing an early iteration of the grid for Effekt. Should we start our features on the left side or the right side of the spread?

Currently, are working on finishing up our features and starting to place text and images into our newly minted grid. We are also working on finalizing our name and identity--almost there!

Production groups will meet for the first time this week, which means that we've moved into the second phase of our project. This is exciting, and a little scary at the same time: we are supposed to go to print in a month!