Folder Office

Column spacing as a page grid

An identity exercise that takes its grid from the bays of a stone colonnade and tests it on a letterhead, a form and a door sign.

Discipline

Year

Scope, , ,

All projects

Neoclassical columns of the Altes Museum overlooking the Lustgarten and Berlin Cathedral.

TypeSelf-initiated study, not a commission

ReferencesTwo CC0 photographs

Mock-upsLetterhead, booking form, door sign

TimeThree weeks

Question

Buildings with classical fronts often end up with a logo drawn from their columns. We wanted to borrow the spacing instead, and see whether the result still felt like it belonged to the same kind of building.

Study

From the photograph we measured the bay between columns, the column width and the depth of the band above. That gave a page grid of wide bays, narrow gutters and a heavy top margin. We set a letterhead, a one-page booking form and a door sign on it for an invented civic hall.

Fluted stone columns of an open colonnade, seen from the pavement, with a lawn and trees behind
Bay, column and the band above: the three measurements behind the grid.
A domed reading room seen from a gallery, with arches, marble columns and rows of lit desks below
The same measuring exercise indoors, where arches set the rhythm for the desks.

Kept

The grid held up on the plain booking form, where a column logo would have looked out of place. It is now a starting grid in our identity files.