You learned about grids and alignment in this module.

STEP #1: CREATE A NEW DOCUMENT

Create a new document in Adobe Illustrator with the following settings: Document settings: The Grid exercise
Your document should look like this: Four artboards

STEP #2: SET THE MARGINS

We’re now going to create 1/4-inch margins on all of the artboards.

1. If you don’t see your rulers at the top and left side of the screen, go to View > Rulers > Show Rulers.
2. Click anywhere in Artboard #1 to select it. You may notice the rulers quickly adjusting to align with its top left corner. (That’s a good thing.)
3. Drag guides from the rulers. Drag guides that are 1/4-inch from the all sides of Artboard #1.
4. Repeat Steps #2 and #3 for each artboard, until you have guides that are 1/4-inch from all sides of all four artboards. Your document should look like this after you’ve done that:

Guides that create 1/4-inch margins on all of the artboards.

STEP #3: CREATE THE GRID

In this step, we’ll create a grid and apply it to all of the artboards. Your grid layout will look like the image below. You’ll start by creating a big orange square, then dividing it into smaller squares, then converting the squares into guides to create the nice, even grids. The final grid guides on all four artboards

• Grab the Rectangle Tool.
• In the Tools Panel, set the Fill to orange and the Stroke to none.
• With the Rectangle Tool, draw a large square in your first artboard. Start from the top-left-corner margin, and go to the bottom-right-corner margin. Your square should look like this:

Draw a big orange square, from corner margin to corner margin.

• With the big orange square still selected, go to Object > Path > Split into Grid. This will divide the big orange square into smaller squares, which will be used to make the grid.

• In that dialog box, enter the following values:

Split the big orange square into smaller squares

• Your orange square should now be split into smaller squares, like this:

The big orange square, split up into little squares.

• With the little squares still selected, go to Object menu > Group to group the little squares together.

• Then, copy-and-paste the group of little squares and align the groups to the margin guides of Artboard #2, #3, and #4. Your document should now look like this:

The little squares aligned to the margins of all four artboards

• Select all of the little orange squares in all four artboards, then go to View > Guides > Make Guides. This will turn all of the little squares into guides for your grid layouts. Your guides should look like this:

The grid layout guides are now in place for all the artboards
This would be a good time to save this file so you don’t have to do it all over again if your computer should crash.

STEP #4: ADD THE CONTENT

With the grid layout guides in place, it’s now time to focus on the content that you’ll add to the layouts.

• Click the link below to download a Microsoft Word document with the text content for the assignment.

ex3_grid_download.docx

• Read the text content in the Microsoft Word document carefully. Notice that it contains:
• a title,
• an introductory paragraph, and
• four similar sections (each with a heading and paragraph).

• After thoroughly reading through the Common Typographic Diseases content, think about how you will arrange it in the grid layout of Artboard #1.
• Here’s an example to help you think about how you might arrange the text in your own layout.
• This is a perfect time to SKETCH your ideas. Don’t try to do this directly in Illustrator. Draw a simple 4×4 grid in your sketchbook (don’t worry about the margins) and rough in with a pencil where you would put the five blocks of text and their titles. In the same text block? In adjacent grid blocks? At the top? At the side? In a row? In a column?
• (Note: The example below is an excerpt from May’s article, “Improve Your Digital Typography” in Issue 277 of Computer Arts magazine. Notice that the excerpt also has a title, intro paragraph, and four similar sections.)

One layout example is shown (A) with guides turned on and (B) with guides turned off.
Use the Type Tool and create text boxes as needed to hold the text from the Common Typographic Diseases content. Make one text box for each paragraph.

• All of the text in all your layouts needs to use the same typeface. You can select any typeface that you activated or downloaded in Module 01, as long as the typeface has high readability (e.g., Adobe Caslon Pro Regular).
• All of the text in Artboards #1 and #2 needs to be 8-pt font size.
• The text in Artboards #3 and #4 needs to be 8-pt font size and one other font size. (Same typeface; just a different size)
• The text in Artboard #4 also needs to include a second font style (e.g., italic, bold, bold italic).

• Each layout must have ALL of its elements aligned with the grid. Also, as you design your layouts, it’s a good idea to turn the guides on/off to see how your design looks without the guides in the way. You can do this with View > Guides > Hide Guides. Remember, the guides are a tool only for the designer. They don’t appear in the final output.

• Each artboard must have a significantly different layout. There exist many different layout possibilities. Think about how you can arrange the elements to create balance and unity. Think about the role that negative space can play in your layouts. Think about typographic hierarchy, especially in Artboards #3 and #4.

• For inspiration, you can perform a Web images searches for “grid layout graphic design” and “grid layout typography.”

Web images searches for inspiration regarding grid layouts

STEP #5: SAVE AND SUBMIT

For this step, first save the Adobe Illustrator document. You’ll then save a copy as a PDF and submit the PDF file. This will ensure that the instructor can view your typefaces properly.

1. Save the Adobe Illustrator document.
2. The name of the file should be your first initial and last name, followed by an underscore and the name of the assignment. An example is shown below:
3. jstudent_ex3_grid_01232018.ai
4. Then, go to File > Save as, and select PDF as the Format. Use the same file name convention:
5. jstudent_ex3_grid_01232018.pdf
6. Submit only the PDF file to the assignment dropbox.