On/Off the Grid

Everything that is experienced, perceived, photographed, used and interacted with can be organized into a grid–static or fluid.
Which is to say; a rigid, strict or quite structure is always needed whenever presenting information in context to other information.
Wether intended or not, a grid can be imposed over the experience (either a tangible print piece or a 3-D environment). There generally exists a micro and macro way of experiencing something.

• If you have one word on a piece of paper, there is a grid

• This blog has a grid (all-though a week one)

• David Carson's work has a grid
may not look like a grid was used, but there is a discernible visual hierarchy that can be considered a grid. Which is to say, the information can be absorbed linearly.
The surveyor peripherally has acknowledged something as a starting point on the piece.

• Walking through someone's home (architecture)

• Fluid grids in web design re-populate into a new grid

• A grocery isle has a grid (wether easily noticeable or not)

Relevance to a grid and it's respective objectives lie within its ability to solve visual problems by creating obvious or understated cues between new and old contexts. Having said this, new grids are developed all the time. We generally just call it a style or system.

We're more exposed to designs, methodologies and grids today, than ever before. User interaction models are a great example of this. Intuitive understanding is dependent on what your communication piece is trying to solve.

If it is not solving or communicating anything–it can be considered art. And art requires no explanation or reasoning. Design is an explanation, Art does not require one.

Everything has a grid. An individual's narrowed perception demands it. The trick is in how long it takes someone to absorb it and understand the new grid. If someone doesn't understand it, it has failed. This happens when something is too new. Familiarity should never be over looked, but we should also always work towards moving the experience forward for the end user or prospect.

Gestalt's Psychology→
1. Law of Proximity
Elements that are closer together will be perceived as a coherent object.
If an element(s) is part of another group of elements, make it salient.
If not, provide enough negative space to suggest it belong's to another quadrant.

2. Law of Similarity
Elements that look similar will be perceived as part of the same form.

3. Law of Continuation
The eye tends to continue contours whenever the elements of a pattern establish an implied direction.
The visuals can guide the eye into a precise direction.
Movement is suggested but not clearly visible.

4. Law of Closure
Humans tend to enclose a space by completing a contour and ignoring gaps in the figure.
The eye will connect or disconnect the dots.
Negative space helps connect or repel objects and elements.
This usually implies a separate or isolated movement away from our initial introduction.

5. Law of Prägnanz
A stimulus will be organized into as good a figure as possible–symmetrical, simple, and regular.
Our eyes and mind will struggle to organize the visual data based on a comparison to visual data we've previously been exposed too.
We try to relate it to something familiar because it helps identify and clarify the visual data.
Despite the chaos, we will always try to organize the noise against what we've previously been exposed too.

6. Law of Figure/Ground
A stimulus will be perceived as separate from it's ground.
Logos usually participate in this illusion with reversals of figure/ground as well as false perspectives and forced justification