The mark of the amateur

The most essential tool in graphic design is the layout grid. Something you can’t even see, not directly at least.

See, when you start working on a design, all you have is a blank page or a blank screen, and if that and the content were all you could have, you’d probably end up doing nothing remarkable with them. Too many possibilities for your little Sapiens brain. But the moment you lay even the simplest of grids on the page, thousands of creative solutions are suddenly within your grasp.

I think the layout grid may be the design equivalent of the daily routine.

In graphic design, lack of structure is the mark of the amateur—with notable exceptions—the same way in life, a lack of structure makes it hard to accomplish anything meaningful—with notable exceptions, I’m sure, although I can’t think of any at the moment.

Woodcut from the ''Divina Proportione'', Luca Pacioli 1509, Venice, depicting the golden proportion as it applies to the human face.