Typography Project 3: The Grid

Nine posters, nine systems, one typeface, one type designer. The constraint is tight by design. Students who choose a typeface with a large family — multiple weights, optical sizes, extensive glyph sets — have more to work with than students who choose something minimal. I tell them this at the start. Some listen. The grid systems from Elam and Samara are not interchangeable: each one has a structural logic that suits certain kinds of content and resists others. Students who match the system to the content produce stronger posters than students who apply the systems sequentially without asking which one fits. That matching question — which grid does this content want? — is the design thinking the project is building. The booklet is where the series either holds together or falls apart.