Being Grid: Grid Design Research Under The Context Of Media Transformation And Communication For Chinese Information

Referencing the “long term” perspective of the French Annales School,this study attempts to examine the grid design under the Chinese context of graphic design from two research angles: information dissemination and media technology evolution.The whole paper concentrates on two closely-related fields: first,the relationship between the font design of Chinese characters and the grid system;second,the evolution of the grid system regarding Chinese typesetting and layout as the core.The subject of this paper contains three parts.The first part discusses the grid design in the traditional Chinese graphic design before the lead movable-type printing era,i.e.,the period of time before the birth of missionary lead movable-type printing in the middle of the 19 th century.The contents of this part involve the grid consciousness in the writing of Chinese characters and the grid system in the traditional Chinese book layout,and the focus of discussion is mainly about the relationship between Chinese characters and Jiugongge,as well as the grid evolution in the engraving type and movable type.The second part discusses the grid design of Chinese information dissemination in the lead movable-type printing era after the birth of the missionary font in the middle of the 19 th century.During this period of time,China had been incorporated into the wave of globalization,and the Chinese font design and book layout were inevitably influenced by the West and Japan.Focusing on the grid system in Chinese font and layout design,this part describes the modernization process of the Chinese grid design concepts empirically.The third part starts from the perspectives of contemporary design theory and design practice and conducts constructive research and discussion about the current situation,problems and possibilities of grid design under the background of digital media and Chinese context.This part mainly focuses on the media transition from "graphic design" to "screen design",the relationship between font design and grid on the basis of screen display,as well as the relationship between information architecture and grid design at both the web end and mobile end.The authors suppose that the grid system constitutes the basic framework and logical arrangement for the Chinese information design.Under the challenge of modern rules,the Chinese character and its grid design system have undergone tremendous changes.However,this is not simply a process of self-denial,but a self-adaptive arrangement based on reality.Although our design concepts today have been deeply influenced by the western modern design concepts and methods,the grid design has actually always existed in the graphic design tradition of Chinese characters.Our cognition of Chinese font design and information layout is still closely related to the cultural tradition of Chinese characters.