OUGD404 DESIGN PRINCIPLES- Cannons and grids

Cannons and Grids

The Van de Graaf canon is a historical reconstruction of a method that may have been used in book design to divide a page into pleasing proportions. 

This method existed long before the computer, the printing press and even a defined measuring unit. No picas or points, no inches or millimetres. It can be used with nothing more than a straight edge, a piece of paper and a pencil. Below is an example of the cannon;

The main boxes are where the main content should be, in the case of photographs the focal point should be positioned within the box. The large margin on the outside of each of the boxes is so that fingers don't cover up vital bits of information when holding the book. Below shows the stages of how to create a cannon;

A grid can then be applied to the cannon to aid and assist you in applying text and image to the page.

This is an example of when text and image has been applied to the cannon using a grid, as you can see the focal point of the image (Tom Sellecks face) is perfectly positioned in the area.