As designers, we always need to provide a clear path for our viewers or readers.
To attract and command their attention, we need to make it easy for them to see where
to start, what to look at, and read first, second, third, and so on.
This hierarchy, or
levels of importance, can be indicated using a number of typographic principles.
If you've seen my lynda com course Foundations of Typography: Hierarchy and
Navigation, you already know some good ways to
indicate hierarchy in your projects.
Now, I'm going to show you how typographic grid structures can
also help to create hierarchy.
In these three examples of a magazine format for
department pages, there is a clear indication of hierarchy for the reader.
It starts with the super bold banner of numbers stretching fully across the top,
which is also a primary position.
Because it occupies the full width of the grid, it becomes a visual priority.
Next, the bold black caps of the headline also sit within a space that
occupies the full width of the grid.
But the headline is secondary by both position and size.
Third in visual importance are the bold italic pull quotes which are significantly
larger than the body copy, occupying two-thirds of the width of the grid.
Even though they are at the bottom, they are higher up in the hierarchy by
the width of the grid space they occupy and their size and weight.
Next, the reader enters into each of these stories directly under the headlines where
the deck is lightweight, but still a larger point size than the body copy.
In the middle example, that deck goes across two-grid modules.
And last but not least, the body copy is contained within either a three or
four-column grid.
Here's a more complex example of how hierarchy can be
indicated by using a grid.
There's an unequal three-column grid, and
one element occupies two of the three columns.
There is an extra sense of structure with column rules and horizontal rules.
There are grids within grids.
On the right, we see an infographic built of modules.
These structures make visual sense out of complex material.
A strong flexible grid can guide the reader through a long project like a book.
Here's a great example of how a grid can indicate hierarchy in
a book containing page after page of complex material.
This book from Sports Illustrated starts with a grid right on its cover.
The concept is to look at the numbers players wear from every team sport and
to decide who wore it best.
Throughout the entire book, the underline grid looks like this.
Here are a couple of examples of the variations of
the grid used throughout the book.
The text always starts under the big number.
And the winner of each number is always the largest image.
That's how this grid's hierarchy works.
If every spread were the same format, it would be repetitive and boring.
It's the variations that make it visually exciting.
The flexibility of the grid allows the designer to create
interesting pacing from beginning to end.
Grids can really be a great help to you and the reader.
Whether on screen or in print, depending on the size and position of these
containers for your content, you can show the reader how to understand the relative
importance of the material visually before they've ever read a single word.