That designer at the coffee shop said 'grids kill creativity' and I couldn't let it slide

I was sitting at Blue Bottle in Brooklyn last Thursday sketching out a new layout for a client's landing page, and the guy next to me was telling his friend that using a grid makes your work feel 'corporate and boring.' I wanted to butt in so bad. Grids have literally saved me from 12 different alignment headaches on this one project. Does anyone else feel like grids are more of a safety net than a cage, or am I just too stuck in my ways?

3 comments

3 Comments

grant_torres13d ago

Honestly, that guy at Blue Bottle sounds like he was just trying to sound deep for his friend. I once had a guy at a diner tell me that using a ruler to sketch was "suppressing the natural flow of my art." Like, sorry I want my lines straight, dude. @the_viola is right though, it's really not that serious. Grids are just the training wheels you eventually learn to barely use.

willow_anderson851mo ago

Did you read that article in Communication Arts about how even the most experimental designers secretly use some kind of structure? Grids are just a starting point, not the final boss.

the_viola1mo ago

Is it really that deep though? I read that article and it felt like they were making a big deal out of something pretty basic. @willow_anderson85 every designer I know uses some kind of grid or structure, even if they don't call it that. It's just how you organize stuff so it doesn't look like a mess. Calling it a "starting point" is fine, but acting like it's some huge secret feels overblown. Most people just pick a layout and go. It's not like we're solving world hunger here, it's just arranging shapes and text.