• By Alma Hoffmann
• Homepage
• Twitter Page

The Framework Of Sources For Typographic Layout

According to Wucius Wong in his book Principles of Form and Design (page 42), point, line and plane can be considered conceptual design elements because, although they are not always explicit or visible, they seem to be present by implication. He explains how an angle, for example, implies the existence of a point and how lines, by marking the contour of an object, imply the presence of a plane.

In most art and design classes, students are asked to analyze the structure of a painting or design in order to better understand principles of organization. These linear studies usually have no relevance to the student outside of the class. But these exercises hold an important lesson, which is about learning to abstract images — and even our surroundings — into linear structures in order to learn about layout organization.

Learning To Abstract What We See

Most of us live in a relatively static environment, whether urban or rural. Recognizing that this environment is framed by points, lines and planes will help us abstract the environment. Let’s consider a photo of an urban environment. Below is a photo of a city escape in Chicago:

(Photo courtesy of the Urban Studies Department, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.)

Here we have a worm’s-eye view of buildings. We can already discern interesting spatial relationships. The white space in and of it self has interesting shapes. These shapes alone give us creative ways to apply copy. Let’s see an example of how this space could be abstracted:

Linear abstraction.

Here, the city escape photo has been abstracted to simple lines. The lines converge at a conceptual point. The lines enclose spaces to create a conceptual plane. Although I did not mark the plane as such, lines that converge at any four points or angles become a plane. Abstracting spaces can, of course, be done in infinite variation. There is no right or wrong. Feel free to experiment!

In looking at the linear abstraction above, we see several lines converge at a certain point, which is towards the right and a bit off center. We can call this a point of hierarchy. Let’s clean up the abstraction and take another look.

Linear abstraction #2.

Now we have a cleaner and clearer version of the first abstraction, perhaps making it a bit easier to start thinking about a possible typographic layout. So, let’s experiment with type placement.

Typographic layout using the linear abstraction as a grid.

As you can imagine, we could do hundreds of variations of this. We can also play with the intersection of some of the lines and points in the layout:

Typographic layout using the linear abstraction as a grid and as visual punctuation.

These simple exercises in layout composition help us see how a photo of an urban landscape holds unexpected inspiration. Now, how do we use this for other applications? What if an article that we need to design does not have interesting or arresting photographs? One way to solve this is to think about the subject matter and find your own sources for inspiration. Seguir leyendo “Finding Alternative Sources Of Typographic Layout In Our Surroundings” →