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Exhibition ED Awards, Stockholm

Marcus Gärde at Konst-ig

The art and design bookshop konst-ig invited Marcus Gärde from BachGarde for a talk and an exhibition.

Exhibition in the window (15–19/5)
Ancient Geometry and its connection to Grid Systems in Graphic Design.



 



   
 

 

      
   


This Window:
The Elements of Typography

There is a constant change between two forces. The solid and the abstract, the warm and the cold, dark and light. This motion of change never stops; it unfolds into a multitude of variations. Whatever we create, it will be a result from these two basic elements.

If we want to create a sword we must first use heat from fire to melt the iron and then cold water to strenghten it. There is nothing that does not follow these simple rules. If you would like to bend something, you must first heat it. Hardness is a result from cold and therefore it can also break.





This Window:
Construction of The Grid

To divide the elements into smaller parts you need to use a construction based on principles of harmony. The proportion of the page, the white space and the printed area must all work together. The artwork above represents the ancient method for dividing an area into smaller parts.

The Grid (the result) represents the Gutenbergs B36 bible. It is divided in a 9x9 grid where the margins follow these principles: the lower is double the size of the upper; the outer margin is double the size of the inner. Both the page and the type area has the proportion 2:3. The spread of the book has the proportion of 3:4. The proportions are in harmony with Pythagorean tuning (Equal temperament) where the fundamental intervals are the ratios 2:1 (octave or diapason), 3:2 (perfect fifth, diapente or sesquialterum) and 4:3 (perfect fourth, diatessaron or sesquitertium). These three intervals and their octaves are the only absolute consonants in Pythagorean tuning (all other intervals have a little dissonance).

In Gutenbergs B36 the gutter (the distance between the columns) where 1/3 of the outer margin. We can see on this drawing that the outer margins are divided into six vertical lines/module. There are two modules in the outer margin (12 lines). The gutter in this drawing is exactly 4 vertical lines (1/3 of the outer margin). Also the top margin is divided into 6 horizontal lines. There are 6 modules inside the type area and each module is divided 6x6. Therefore there is 36 lines inside the type area.




This Window:
Colours of Typography

Colours affect each other and fool us into perceiving tones that don’t exist physically, only psychologically. The eye always searches for harmony, and to the eye, this means to have all three types of colour cells activated as equally as possible. It also wants to create contrasts, to accentuate the differences of colours so we can create patterns.

This is true for the luminosity of colour, as well as its temperature (warm/cold). This function of the eye is important since it makes it easier for us to differentiate objects, branches for example, and most likely has something to do with our survival mechanism. If you can, for example, detect a vague change of colour between branches in the woods, you can perceive motion, and if you can also see how large the change of colour is and what shape it takes, you can see exactly what the moving figure is.

What I just explained is called Simultaneous contrast. You can see an example of it above when you look at the beige square in the middle. It is the same colour on both artwork but if you look at it from a distance (move back 2 meters) they appear different.