Layout Essentials

I enjoyed reading through this book even though it wasn’t what I expected. The book starts well by explaining grid elements and structures. It even begins to explain the process of developing a grid. Then things change.

The book is better titled: “100 Layout Ideas Using Grids.” Essentially, the author compiled a number of well-designed works that use a grid and wrote some banal “principle” from each (like “Pacing sets the tone.”) Some of the principles are only vaguely grid-related, at best! The example imagery and the “principles” are inspiring and helpful idea starters, I just wish I knew that’s what I was getting when I picked up the book.

Overall, it’s a good inspiration picture book of grids, but unfortunately the 100 principles won’t clearly teach you how to implement your own grids.