Studio Brief 3 - Grid Research

My publication is based around a modern and contemporary manner, it will end up showcasing mostly photos with small fragments of text. Therefore I looked at 4 contemporary publications/photography book to understand what kinds of grid system they have in place and why.

Most of the photography book I looked into rarely had any text within them and made it difficult to understand how the text would work in relation to the images but it also suggest a good point whether or not I actually need text with my photos as in most photography book the images do the talking.

In general most of the photography book had a unique grid system which hadn't be used within the other books with a similar style or subject. This suggest to me that that the photos are in control of the layout. The stories within the images can be the guidance to where the image should be positioned onto the page. The positioning of the photography is all about making the image look as strong aesthetically and conceptually on the page whilst in complete balance and harmony with the image on the other side of the page. 

 The first book has a fluid layout, a different grid set up for each page as demonstrated in the next 2 images. The only layout choice that is similar with every page are the margins. A wider margin on one side but smaller on the other suggest a contemporary trend by making the photography's seem more photography-like, almost like a Polaroid photo.

 This next photography book all the images are full bleed and in black and white. The full bleed images gives maximum appeal and focus onto the image allowing no room to glance away.
Also the black and white images could be in reference to the vintage and almost eerie style of the book. Either way the mono type printing would be a cost effective way to print the book at a commercial scale, which is probably one of the reasons why it's very cheap to buy.

Like the first publication this one is the same in terms of layout. However, it's a very popular trend for photography book to start positioning their image onto the other side of the page every so slightly. Emphasises it's modern, contemporary and clean aesthetic.

 Lastly, this was the only photography book with text along side the images.Where there is a lot of text then you will often find structure within the page and some sort of grid system to organise the book and not let it roam free within a fluid grid.

This book seems to only be working with a 1 column grid system with the text on the left hand side and the image on the right. This kind of layout is beneficial to the user so they can easily reference the image and text and quickly realise that the text is for that particular image. The text is allowed to run free across the width of the page, it could come across messy and not thought through as text that has more then 10 words per line can make the user bored and un-engaging to read so many words on a single line. Lastly, the image is centre aligned which allows for balance of white space and easy guidance from text to image.