Design Principles: Layout Thumbnails

"Sketching is used as a thinking tool in the design process, for outlining initial ideas at both the macro and micro level. At the macro level, sketching can be used to produce an initial design idea or concept. Sketching can also be used to resolve aspects such as book pagination and roughing out layouts without getting into typographic details and final positioning. Sketching at the micro level can be used to refine elements of a design prior to the final work-up; for resolving the key details of a logo."

Here I have taken a double page spread and traced the lines of the grid that the components of the page sit on.

 I have then identified what each component of the page is on the tracing paper so that I can see where it is when I take the page away. What we are left with is a large thumbnail diagram of the layout of the page. We have worked backwards in this way, so can instead in future create thumbnails for our content and then mock them up on the computer afterwards.

We created a to scale version of our layout on a rice of paper, and used a diagonal line from one corner to the other to create a thumbnail of the spread with the same size ratio. This makes it easier to make the thumbnail more accurate.

Here are some thumbnails of how the previously shown content of the double page spreads can be re-arranged on a 3 column grid system.

Below I have enlarged one of the pictures as this can't really be done with the text.

Another way to fill space is to enlarge the title or leave space for the writers name. Alternatively we could use the white space for a more clear layout

 The thumbnails aren't particularly accurate, but you can get a good sense of where the content is. There will always be changes that will have to be made on the computer.