Designer Grid-Based Notepads

July 2nd, 2008
by James Kurtz III

Designer notepads from Art of the Grid have me (and many other designers) drooling. Each notepad has an influential grid printed on it. For example the pad titled Raster Systeme is based on Josef Müler-Brockmann’s must-own book of the same name on grid theory and practice. There are other famous grids as well, such as Die Neue Typographie by Jan Tschichold, A Designer’s Art by Paul Rand, and even one of the earliest grids ever made for mechanical moveable-type printing, The Bible by Johannes Gutenberg.

Grid it! Family

Art of the Grid also does a nice job explaining each grid and it’s importance, for example in reference to Le Modulor by Le Corbusier they write.

The Modulor made a major contribution to the form of modern architecture and became the foundation stone for most design systems and modern grids. The Modulor was primarily concerned with architectural form, but Le Corbusier was quick to point out its application to other areas, including the design of the printed page. The design system took the golden section one step further by linking it to the scale and proportion of the human anatomy. Le Corbusier selected the solar plexus, the top of the head, and the tips of the fingers of an extended arm as the principal anatomical locations. the distance from the ground to the solar plexus represents the extremes division of the golden section, and the distnace between the solar plexus and the top of the head is the mean. From this base Le Corbusier produced an infinite series of mathematical proportions that could be applied to a wide range of architectural dimensions. Most apllications of Le Modulor to graphic design, including Le Corbusier’s own designs of Le Modulor, and Suite de la Modulor, have not been particularly impressive. Perhaps the most important contribution of the Modulor to two-dimensional design was the inspiration it gave to the typographic designers of Germany and Switzerland to create the modular systems that would transfer utilitarian makeup sheets to design-oriented modern grids. (extracted from Allen Hurlburt, The Grid, John Wiley & Sons, 1978)

The notepads can be purchased at Magma Books.

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2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Gio Callao Jul 6, 2008 at 8:03 pm

    Hi James,

    Thanks for the comment. I like these grid-based notepads a lot, so definitely count me in as one of the drooling designers. ;) The grids will really help when thumbnailing layouts for multi-page documents. I gridded out my paper before doing the sketches for my print portfolio, but sometimes I just eyeball it. Now, I wonder if they sell these outside of Magma Books…

  • 2 James Kurtz III Jul 7, 2008 at 3:47 pm

    Gio! Thanks for stopping by, much appreciated. I too wonder where else they may be sold. Magma Books is quite expensive especially since for me it is overseas.