Typophile

Page construction in Müller-Brockmann’s “Grid Systems in Graphic Design”

D S

http://www.olivertomas.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/2374220307_850b687...

Can anyone figure out the logic behind the page construction?
Page size is A4 (210 × 297 mm) and the grid is 468 × 657 pt (Didot points – 0.376 mm; 175.968 × 247.032 mm).
I've been trying to reconstruct it in Illustrator from the actual book measurements and the only thing that I got so far is that you’ll get the golden section where the line going through the lower right corners of paper and text block intersects the upper edge of the paper.

enne_son

The grid is described inside, pages 87 to 95.

The units of measurement used to calculate the positions on the grid are ciceros, as shown 0n page 88. I'm not seeing a Golden Section formatting, but you are right about the positioning of the text block relative to the page. The oblique axis going from the bottom of the inner edge to the outside top intersects the top outer corner and bottom inner corner of the text block.

The text block is 39 ciceros wide and 54 cic 9 deep.
The column widths are 9 ciceros wide, the horizontal space between the columns is 12 didot points;
The vertical cells are 5 cic 9; the vertical spacing between the cells is 15 didot points.

That’s the system. But is it the logic?

It could be that the vertical arithmetic is premised on the depth given by the diagnol for a 39 ciceros wide block.

D S

I knew about the size of the text block; I have the book. But the positioning isn't mentioned anywhere.

Captured from web.archive.org on 2 Aug 2014. view this capture