Outrageous grids

After reading the chapter on Grids and discussing grids in the classroom, I have begun to notice grids everywhere. Each website, magazine, etc has its own certain setup, and now that I am aware of what a grid is, I can identify it in the website. I never stopped to think about how designers specifically put information on a page in a certain way that has been around for years. This gives me a new respect for writers and designers.


This also makes me think of the book "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski. Below are pictures of a page from this book.

I thought of this specifically because of the lack of any grids involved in the book. It makes it stick out and a little more difficult to read. However, it definitely catches the attention of the reader. Not many books cast away from the typical one unit grid. Maybe there are a few pictures where the text wraps around, but never before have I seen a book that looks like this.

Even in the textbook, on the first page about grids, Lupton states, "A grid can be simple or complex, specific or generic, tightly defined or loosely interpreted. Typographic grids are all about control" 
(Lupton 151). This book is definitely not controlled. 


I think it is refreshing to see websites, books, magazines, any literature, branch out from the typical controls of a grid. Throughout the chapter on grids, it shows many creative styles of grids that could be construed as different from the normal uses of grids, but there is still nothing that looks like the pictures above. Everything still has a place, mathematically, on the page. The first picture looks to be that way as well, but the second picture looks all over the place. I find this to be fascinating and exciting, but it might mean a reader has to pay close attention to the page, and maybe reread it a few times.


It would definitely be interesting to see how the writer sat down and graphed out the pages to make sure the information wasn't completely lost on the page.