There’s nothing wrong with Comic Sans.

It’s been overused by the under-skilled for so long that it has now become a laughing stock. I don’t think I need to add anymore to this particularly long running argument. If you want to know more read about it here.

But, I read recently that Flash is in danger of becoming the new Comic Sans and immediately thought some of my favourite sites over the years have been built entirely in Flash and that it’s – occasionally – the perfect tool for the job. But, it’s just that – a tool – in an extensive toolbox that we designers can call upon to solve the problem that sits in front of us. Reading the backlash against Flash it seemed to be a bit ‘trendy’ with the Flashbashers banging on about usability, HTML5 and CSS3 as the new ‘in’ thing and the Flash advocates declaring war on Apple ( I know, just another day on ‘tinternet.) Ok, so all design follows trends but I’ve alway felt that the web with its l33t culture has always been particularly prone to this.

Ok, Flash is out. But if it’s not the new Comic Sans what is?

Well, for me, it’s The Grid. The oh so dreadfully fashionable grid system is definitely in danger of taking the Comic Sans award for most ‘inappropriate use of’. Everywhere I look a see badly designed and poorly executed sites that, the designer expects us to accept simply because they’re built on a 960px grid layout. Big deal.

Hey! There’s nothing wrong with grid systems...

No, They’ve been around for years, just like Comic Sans. But, they were devised at a time when changing the leading from 10pt to 9pt throughout a document would have cost a fortune in re-setting and re-proofing. They were devised to address a historical problem but, with the advancement of technology, that problem no more… So, the grid system, created as a reasonably foolproof way of designing a complete document by hand before giving it to the typesetter only really remains relevant as a means of handling content effectively.

But recently, I seen article after article written about ‘grid design’ on the web. Now hang on, a grid is a means of handling content, it is a control system. The design bit is outside the grid, it is the stuff that gives the content life. Design is the quality of the air around your content. Imagine building a wall 8 metres by 8 metres. If you know how big each brick is you can divide the wall by the size of a brick to find out how many bricks you’ll need. This will save you money and time but it wont wont help make your wall attractive. For that you’ll need paint, but what colour? What texture?. These are the design decisions. And if decide not to paint the wall and expect everyone to count the bricks in order to accept your decision well, that’s just lazy.

There are, of course, exceptions. Designers like Wim Crouwel makes huge use of the grid to actually form his designs. But, his works were created at a time when their were very few options for designers and it’s this constraint that keeps the idea pure. You can also see a similar approach in action in the new Otl Aicher inspired Adobe CS5 Splash screens here. The grid brings order and control to the graphic elements and the result is stunning.

The opposite is true of ‘Making and Breaking The Grid’. You only have to take a quick glance at a couple of the pages to see how ridiculous the notion of ‘grid design’ really is.

Just like Comic Sans, grids are overused by the under-skilled…

I remember standing in a magazine ‘design’ studio looking at an completed design of a double (A4) page spread. It had about 3 postage stamp size pictures on it and 3 columns of 4pt text and I found myself wondering what the hell was going on. It was unreadable, boring and honestly the crappiest thing I’d seen in a long time.

The ’designer’ explained his ‘design’ to me as a grid-system in a tone like,

1. I didn’t know what one was.
2. That grid was some sort of design system, a mathematically perfect, no-one can better, DaVinci code solution to all design problems.

When I asked him (as gently as possible – they’re sensitive you know) if the pictures were ok at that size he turned on his guides in InDesign to reveal something that looked like the Matrix.

“It’s a 60 column grid” He said.

So, as i’m trying to work out 60 columns across 420mm in my head (it’s about 7mm per column with no gutters!) He proceeded to check that the images were precisely aligned and, when he was happy declared them ‘designed’.

“Designed” I said “surely you mean aligned.” ”No, they’re on the grid so they’re designed”

And it is exactly this one-size fits all approach to design that may ultimately see the grid falling into the same category as Comic Sans. Josef Muller-Brockmann would turn in his grave.