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mojoprime
12-06-2006, 06:33 PM
Ok, normally i wouldn't get all up on a soapbox about this kind of stuff, but it seems if you're going to do something, do it right.

specifically, i mean grids in a document. if you're building a document, and the text boxes have a tint and you have a certain amount of inset on them, for f****'s sake make them consistent. if you have mutliple objects that all seem to line up on one edge, then line up the freakin' edges. make your spacing consistent, your type sizes in whole numbers, and for that matter, don't use 6000 different type sizes.

jumpin' jezus it pisses me off. i'm working on updating something that a designer of enough experience to know better (17+ years) created, and if she was here, i'd punch her nose ring out.

now, i'm all for "deconstructed design" where things deliberately fall off the grid, but listen up newbies, before you can destroy and "deconstruct" the grid you need to know what a frelling grid *is* in the first place. i honestly believe that you need to either be truly gifted (as in, your first layouts are flawless) or at least somewhat learn-ed before you go into the world of grid-free layouts and designs. that stuff is amazing -- sometimes -- but as you folks that have been doing this for a while know, it immediately shows when the designer doesn't *really* know what they're doing. let me explain: there's a difference between not conforming to a grid and not knowing how to set things so they line up.

by the way, i absolutely hate the term "deconstructed" anymore. desconsructed designs, food, houses... houses! i kid you not. i've seen it. why would you live in something that's deconstructed? doesn't that mean, by definition, that it will be prone to falling?!? i think a lot of time "deconstructed" is short-hand for "lazy."

do it right for awhile, do the designs well and by the numbers, and then you earn the right to blow the grids all to hell.

i mean, where are the fundamentals anymore? shite, if i had done things like this when i was learning, the printers and designers who taught me would have eaten my lunch; as a matter of fact, *they did* and that's why i pay close attention to the details.

i know there are others of you out there that see this. i'm sure the prepress guys see if all the time. if it's not in the attention to details in the layout, it's in the attention to details of building your document to RIP and print correctly, to use maybe tints of colors (for example) instead of using transparency simply because you didn't know how to make a tint -- no lie, i've seen it. small things.

see, the small things make big things later on. your time that you make up by just throwing crap on a page for someone else to clean up means they spend a morning fixing mistakes that never should have been made in the first place.

*phew* sorry. had to get that off of my chest. carry on. :)

budafist
12-06-2006, 09:49 PM
I'm doing a 100 page image heavy book right now. If I didn't have a grid I'd be very lost. I understand your grid woes there.

I only have 2 font sizes in my book - headings and body. I might have 3 when the client supplieds captions for photos.

Not only are grids helpful for speed of page set up, the're also easy on the eye for finding where the information is on the page etc.

morea
12-06-2006, 09:54 PM
I <3 grids. They are delicious. :D

there, there mojo... *reassuring pat on the back*

EC
12-06-2006, 10:09 PM
^ ditto what morea said.

mojoprime
12-06-2006, 10:11 PM
thanks, mo. sorry, been a long day. :)

morea
12-06-2006, 10:13 PM
I hear that! :)

Craig B
12-06-2006, 10:13 PM
I completely agree that designers should all understand about grids, it aids composition. And I agree about keeping your fonts to a minimum.

However, with all that being said, yes, sometimes it's good and okay to "break the rules", but as you said, you need to understand the principles before you can break the rules in a way that works well.

Amen Mojo. Amen.

mojoprime
12-06-2006, 10:23 PM
i know, i know. but like someone else said in another thread (i think it was PD), it's hard to set everything in 28.942pt. when i was working at the newspaper, i managed to get luck enough to have one of the older printers in the backshop befriend me, and i asked him (pleaded as more like it) to mark up my pages at night with everything i did wrong. i still have those pages. things like that'll keep you humble. looks like someone opened up a vein.

but i did it until they're weren't any corrections. felt like i passed kidney stone but it was worth it.

MAK online
12-07-2006, 04:02 AM
That was an awesome rant. Sorry you had to post it but glad you did.