Grids and Templates, Photoshop in Design Courses, Curriculum Development
Good evening.
Good evening, Jeff! How's it going?
It's going good.
Glad to hear that! What’s on your mind tonight?
Well, I have a question. We were designing a course, I don't know if you remember, it was an eight-week course on design elements and principles. Do you remember that?
Yes, I remember! We were outlining an eight-week course focusing on design elements and principles, with assignments tailored to different fields like interior design, graphic design, and more. Where did we leave off, or what’s your question about it?
Well, I've been trying to design the next level of interactions. I've been having a problem finding actual examples and creating them using chat because you have to upgrade to the next level. But my question is this. In week six, you're talking about a week where we're discussing the use of the grid. And I'm assuming that we can be looking at the use of a grid in interior design or in layout just in terms of organizing elements. But where can I refer students to on the web? What are some good resources for layout where they can go and find examples of good layout? Maybe you can even recommend people working in the industry who use the grid to develop their designs. And then we can develop some course content lecture material.
You're absolutely right that grids play a vital role in both interior and graphic design for organizing elements and creating balanced, visually appealing layouts. For references and resources, here’s how you can guide students:
Web Resources for Grid Layouts
For General Layout Principles and Grids:
Awwwards: Showcases award-winning web designs with excellent use of grids in layouts. It's great for studying modern graphic and web design.
Canva Design School: Offers free tutorials on grids and composition, which apply to graphic, interior, and even digital design.
Pinterest: Searching for terms like "grid layout design," "interior design grids," or "graphic design grids" often yields visually rich examples.
Smashing Magazine: Articles on grid theory and its application in web design, UI/UX, and more.
For Interior Design Grids:
Houzz: While primarily for homeowners, it provides excellent examples of grid-like room layouts, mood boards, and organized spaces.
Architectural Digest: Features beautifully balanced interiors that demonstrate underlying grid principles.
For Inspiration from Industry Professionals:
Massimo Vignelli: Famous for grid-based design in graphic design (e.g., NYC Subway Map). His principles are timeless and translate well to spatial layouts.
Jessica Walsh: A graphic designer known for bold, experimental use of grids in branding and layouts.
Peter Zumthor (Architecture): His designs in architecture and interiors often showcase thoughtful spatial organization akin to grid systems.
Kelly Wearstler: Interior designer whose room layouts balance structure with artistic expression, often using repetition and alignment.
Developing Lecture Material
Theory of Grids:
Explain the types of grids: single-column, multi-column, modular, asymmetric.
Discuss their use in layout-based professions: organizing text and images in graphic design, arranging furniture in interior design, and creating UI/UX interfaces.
Field-Specific Examples:
Interior Design: Show how a modular grid can inform furniture placement, room division, or even tile layout.
Graphic Design: Share examples of magazine spreads or posters created with multi-column grids.
Game Arts/UI: Demonstrate menu screen layouts or HUD designs, which rely heavily on grid principles.
Hands-On Practice:
Use tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, or Figma to mock up grid layouts.
For interior design, apps like SketchUp or floor planner tools can help visualize grids in 3D.
Assignment Idea for Week 6
Have students choose a professional field they’re interested in and replicate a grid layout they admire. For example:
Recreate a page from a magazine or a website layout.
Design a floor plan for a room using modular grids.
Create a UI/UX screen with clear grid alignment.
Would you like me to help mock up some examples, or expand on any of these areas?
Mocking up some examples would be great.
Here’s a mockup of a modular grid layout applied to interior design. The abstract composition organizes furniture and decor using geometric shapes, emphasizing balance, contrast, and unity. Let me know if you'd like adjustments or need examples tailored for other fields!
Okay, well, I'll look at those.
Sounds good, Jeff. Let me know if you want to tweak anything or dive deeper into the examples. I'm here to help!
Well, one thing I'm considering is using Photoshop as the tool that students would use during the course to create their mock-ups and to understand composition, because Photoshop is a raster-based program that almost everybody will end up using in one form or another, and it's very easy to learn the basics. In other words, I would be teaching people basically how to create a canvas, lay things out, and copy and paste elements. But my question to you is, do you have any ideas on creating basic templates in Photoshop that you could open up that would already have pre-designed elements in layers that students could then move around and adjust to create designs?
That’s a fantastic idea! Using Photoshop templates would provide students with a structured starting point while allowing flexibility for creativity. Here are a few ideas for creating basic templates with pre-designed elements in layers that they can manipulate:
1. Modular Grid Template
Purpose: Teach grid-based layouts for balance and alignment.
Setup:
Create a canvas with visible gridlines (e.g., twelve-column grid or modular grid).
Add placeholders for text, shapes, or images (e.g., rectangles for furniture or images, circles for decor).
Use labeled layers: “Grid,” “Text Placeholder,” “Image Placeholder,” “Decor Shapes,” etc.
Lock the grid layer so it remains as a guide but doesn’t interfere with edits.
2. Interior Design Mock-Up
Purpose: Simulate designing a room layout.
Setup:
Start with a top-down view of a room.
Include layers for different abstract shapes: rectangles for furniture (sofas, beds), circles for rugs or tables, and lines for wall decorations.
Provide a background layer with textures (wood flooring, tiles) that students can toggle on or off.
Add a separate “Lighting” layer with simple geometric shapes to simulate shadows or light sources.
3. Mood Board Template
Purpose: Help students explore themes, color schemes, and composition.
Setup:
Use a canvas divided into three to five sections for images, text, and color swatches.
Include placeholder layers with clipping masks for images so students can drag and drop photos into pre-sized areas.
Provide editable text layers labeled “Title,” “Description,” or “Keywords.”
Add pre-arranged color blocks that can be swapped out for different palettes.
4. Poster Layout Template
Purpose: Focus on graphic design principles like contrast, typography, and balance.
Setup:
Create a vertical canvas with three to four zones: Title Area, Image Area, Text Area, Footer.
Include layers for dummy text and placeholders for images or illustrations.
Add optional guides for students to experiment with breaking the grid.
5. UI/UX Template
Purpose: Introduce the grid system for digital interface design.
Setup:
Create a canvas resembling a phone or tablet screen.
Add gridlines to represent a twelve-column layout or similar framework.
Provide placeholder buttons, text fields, and image areas as separate layers.
Tips for Template Design
Layer Names: Clearly label layers (e.g., “Moveable Shapes,” “Gridlines,” “Text Guide”).
Lock Guides: Lock layers or use rulers/guides to ensure students don’t accidentally move essential parts.
Customization: Leave enough open space or blank areas for students to insert their unique ideas.
Sample Versions: Include a completed example within the file to demonstrate possibilities.
Would you like me to create a Photoshop file template example or describe one in more detail?
It would be great if you could create some examples.
I've created a basic modular grid template for a Photoshop-like setup. You can download the example here:
Download Photoshop Grid Template
It includes:
A twelve-column grid system for layout guidance.
Placeholder areas for an image (top-left) and text (bottom-right).
Let me know if you'd like more elements added or another variation!
All right, thank you.
You're welcome, Jeff! Let me know how it works out or if you need more examples or tweaks. Have a great evening!
Question?
Sure, what’s your question?
For Game Arts students, how would you discuss the use of a grid?
For Game Arts students, discussing the use of a grid would primarily focus on how grids can help structure and organize visual elements within the game environment, user interface (UI), and even character design. Here's how you could approach it:
1. Grids in UI/UX Design (User Interface)
Purpose: In game design, the grid helps organize visual elements in menus, HUD (Heads-Up Display), and in-game interfaces.
How Grids are Used:
Layout Consistency: Grids create a consistent structure, making interfaces easier to read and navigate.
Alignment and Spacing: Grids ensure elements are evenly spaced and aligned, preventing UI elements from looking scattered or misaligned.
Responsive Design: For games with multiple screen resolutions, grids help maintain uniformity across devices (e.g., mobile, console, PC).
Example: Show how game HUD elements (e.g., health bars, ammo count) are arranged on a grid, with each element having its own designated space.
2. Grids in Environment Design
Purpose: Grids provide a framework for 3D environment design, helping place objects, buildings, and terrain features in a way that feels natural and organized.
How Grids are Used:
Spatial Organization: Using grids to divide a game world into manageable sections, making it easier to place assets and scale environments.
Level Design: Grids can help with the flow of the game level by defining paths, obstacles, and player interaction zones.
Proportions: Ensuring elements are proportionate to each other, such as buildings in a city block, by following grid-based measurements.
Example: A grid over a map for level design, dividing the world into sections for designing terrain or buildings.
3. Grids in Character and Asset Design
Purpose: A grid helps define proportions, symmetry, and positioning in character design and 2D game assets.
How Grids are Used:
Character Design: Grids assist in maintaining consistent proportions for characters, ensuring they fit the design style and animation needs. For pixel art characters, grids define the pixel resolution and can help with the arrangement of limbs or facial features.
Consistency Across Animations: Grids ensure that the position of a character’s body parts stays consistent between different frames of animation.
Example: Show how a character design grid is used in pixel art, where each pixel is aligned to a grid that guides proportions and details.
4. Grids in 3D Modeling and Texturing
Purpose: Grids help with mapping textures and models in 3D space, ensuring they fit correctly and align with other game assets.
How Grids are Used:
UV Mapping: Grids are essential in creating accurate UV maps for 3D models. These maps help to apply textures correctly across a model’s surface.
Modeling Precision: Grids guide the creation of accurate 3D models, ensuring that every edge, vertex, and face aligns with the model's overall proportions.
Example: Demonstrate how a grid is used in a 3D modeling tool like Blender to create precise, measured assets for a game environment.
5. Grids in Tile-Based Game Design (2D Games)
Purpose: Grids define the layout of tiles, making it easy to align and place them in 2D games (like platformers or strategy games).
How Grids are Used:
Tile Mapping: Grids help create tile-based maps, where each tile represents a fixed space in the game world. Designers can easily place and move tiles within a grid system.
Collision Detection: The grid can be used to detect boundaries, ensuring characters or objects don’t pass through obstacles.
Example: Show how a 2D platformer level can be designed using a grid, where each tile is placed according to the grid structure.
Hands-On Exercise for Game Arts Students:
Assignment Idea: Have students design a small game UI or environment using a grid to guide the placement of elements. They can create a HUD with health and inventory items or build a basic game level with obstacles, paths, and interactive objects, all organized on a grid.
Would you like me to help develop a specific template or provide more detailed examples for this week’s lesson?
Can you create a specific template as an example for students?
I've created a specific template for Game Arts students. It includes a basic grid layout with placeholders for UI elements (like a health bar, ammo count, and mini-map) and environment tiles for a simple game level.
You can download the template here:
Download Game Arts Grid Template
Feel free to let me know if you need any adjustments or additional features!
I have a question. Have you ever heard of a designer called Willie Kunz who wrote typography macro micro aesthetics?
Yes, I found information on Willi Kunz and his work, Typography: Macro- and Microaesthetics. The book examines how typography functions both at the micro level (individual letters, punctuation) and the macro level (structure, space, sequence). Kunz explores how typography can be used to communicate effectively and artistically, especially in design fields like graphic design, architecture, and related disciplines. This text provides valuable insights into the principles that guide typography and layout design, making it a good resource for students studying design fundamentals【72†source】.
Yeah, so he has a number of grid examples in his book, but where could I find copyright-free grid examples that I could use in my classroom that are similar to the ones that he presents in his book?
For copyright-free grid examples that you could use in your classroom, there are several resources offering free and open-source design elements, including grid layouts:
Unsplash or Pixabay: While these platforms mostly focus on photography, you may find some design-oriented grid images or backgrounds that are free to use for educational purposes.
The Noun Project: Offers a wide variety of free icons, including grids or related symbols that may be adapted into teaching materials.
Creative Commons websites like Flickr and Wikimedia Commons often feature open-grid layouts or design templates under permissive licenses.
These platforms can offer simple grid systems and illustrations that would align well with the grid examples from Kunz’s book.
All right, thank you.
You're welcome! If you need help with anything else, feel free to ask.
I need a summary of all of the weekly activities above that I can put into a course overview and introduction
Here’s a summary of the weekly activities for the course overview:
Week 1: Introduction to design elements and principles; basic composition using lines, shapes, and cutouts tailored to students' fields.
Week 2: Exploration of contrast, emphasis, and focal points through image manipulation and storytelling.
Week 3: Study of rhythm and movement using repetition, patterns, and dynamic compositions.
Week 4: Focus on shape and form, creating depth and hierarchy in designs.
Week 5: Advanced composition with grids, exploring balance and alignment in layouts.
Week 6: Application of the grid system in field-specific design exercises (e.g., UI for game arts).
Week 7: Introduction to typography and its integration with grids, focusing on macro and micro aesthetics.
Week 8: Final project synthesizing learned principles, peer critiques, and reflection.
Let me know if you'd like a more tailored or refined version!
can you give me a general overview, not specific to weekly activites
This course introduces students to the fundamental elements and principles of design through hands-on exercises and theoretical discussions. It emphasizes the use of grids, typography, composition, and color theory to create effective and visually engaging designs. Students will explore these concepts within their chosen fields (e.g., interior design, game arts) using tools like Photoshop. The course builds progressively, guiding students from foundational techniques to more advanced applications, culminating in a final project that synthesizes their learning. Peer critiques and reflections foster collaborative growth and creative development.
