Mark Boulton — Designing grid systems

Web Directions @media 2010, Southbank Centre London, June 10 2.40pm.

Presentation slides

Session descrip­tion

Grid sys­tems have been used in print design, archi­tec­ture and inte­rior design for gen­er­a­tions. Now, on the web, the same rules of grid sys­tem com­po­si­tion and usage no longer apply. Content is viewed in many ways; from RSS feeds to email. Content is viewed on many devices; from mobile phones to lap­tops. Users can manip­u­late the browser, they can remove con­tent, resize the can­vas, resize the type­faces. A designer is no longer in con­trol of this pre­sen­ta­tion. So where do grid sys­tems fit in to all that?

About Mark Boulton

Mark Boulton PortraitMark Boulton is a graphic designer from the UK. He’s worked in Sydney, London and Manchester as an Art Director for clients such as the BBC, T-Mobile, British Airways, and Toyota. Mark now runs his own design studio, Mark Boulton Design. A stickler for applied typographic and design theory, Mark is an active member of the International Society of Typographic Designers and writes a design journal at markboulton.co.uk.

Follow Mark on Twitter: @markboulton

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3 responses to “Mark Boulton — Designing grid systems”:

  1. Really great, thank you so much for this. The lit­tle bit his­tory is a great lead in.

    While I’m sure lazy pre-​​made grid sys­tems will con­tinue to exist I plan on doing most of the grunt work myself from now on — from the con­tent out.

  2. This was fas­ci­nat­ing… I am inter­ested in find­ing out more about the stud­ies that allowed vis­i­tors to switch between mobile view and stan­dard view on their iPhones. I think I’d pre­fer to expe­ri­ence web­sites 1 way, regard­less of my device. Seems to fit well with Steve Krug’s “don’t make me think” phi­los­o­phy. Besides, I can scroll up and down *and* left and right. ;0)

  3. […] http://​www​.web​di​rec​tions​.org/​r​e​s​o​u​r​c​e​s​/​m​a​r​k​-​b​o​u​l​t​o​n​-​d​e​s​i​g​n​i​n​g​-​g​r​i​d​-​s​y​s​t​e​ms/ […]

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