Customer Reviews

The Typographic Grid

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This one is a must for any graphic design student. The text, illustrations, and content exceed the standard. For understanding the intricacies of the 'grid' system in a manner that is playful yet scientific this is the book. I feel this is one of the best out there. Very well written in German and English.

As a graduating senior in Graphic Design with five years of education under my belt I can say that THE TYPOGRAPHIC GRID is more of a let down than a continuation of Josef Muller Brockmann's seminal--Grid Systems.

Now, it is a fact that Bossard's grids are incredibly complex, and he proceeds to go directly into dissecting (in the the most minute detail) all of the mathematical structure used in creating his grid systems. True to other reviews his grids are the most convoluted I have ever come across. However, the end result of all the mathematical toiling reveals formulaic designs that look as if they came out of the 1950's.

For instance, there is all most always just one typeface being employed, in one size, justified, on a light background with no color. There is no obvious "hidden beauty" in regards to the strategic placing of the type(in contrast to the work of Willi Kunz's or Josef Muller Brockmann). The "grey matter" of the text is very heavy and seems to dominate the photographs and white space so completely that the overall work looks clunky and unsophisticated. Compositionally the designs are also static.

In a nutshell, the complex grids completely overrun the aesthetics of Bossard's designs. There is only about 15 pages in the whole book that are worth checking out, and in these he gives his tenets of how to construct grids in regards to book design. This section IS highly informative. For example, he goes into detail of how to create leading that is proportional to the grid employed. There is also a section dealing with the compositional placement of photographs based on their subject matter which is also helpful.

But, again, if you would like to check this out refer first to Willi Kunz's FORM & TRANSFORMATION. Willi Kunz is about half as detailed with his designs, but he instructs thoroughly on the aesthetics of typography, grouping, alignments and composition through half of the book. Certainly don't buy Bossard for the few gems it has to offer.