Grids: Music & Design
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the similarities between music and graphic/web design (both part of my personal duality list) and the modern methods for creating each.
First a little background on my abilities and interest.
Creating music (not just listening to it) was something I came to, primarily through my work in audio production and editing. I started off more as a sound geek who loved listening to music but thought it was crazy the way audio can effect our senses.
The software I would use and continue to use is primarily grid based (I like me some hip-hop beats), meaning when I zoom into an audio track, I can snap edits or additional sounds to a grid and know it will be consistent throughout the track. I have come to find this a very helpful tool in my continual development as a musician and music producer.
As for design, I developed my skills using similar digital tools like Photoshop and Illustrator, though I rarely used the grid options, especially in my early design tool development, I would occasionally lay down a box grid (like graph paper, but digital) to make pasterns and use it as a reference for larger pieces. I later developed an understanding of typographic grids, which have been used since the the early half of last century and are great for understanding type’s relation to the page and other type.
While it is important for our brains to find patterns to ease the navigation of life, both these tools, useful as they are, are not dogma; they are still just tools. The dynamic nature of a song is what keeps people’s interest, not the fact that the strings, kick and bassline all start on a downbeat, and the variation in a visual design is what keeps us reading, not the fact that everything is left aligned or separated by 1/4″ padding.
I’m not trying to be an advocate for jarring music and display, but the elements that do the unexpected in a field of complacency, can have the right impact on their viewer/listener, if done right. I have found some of the best music I’ve created is from using the vibrating string of an old guitar rather than a gridded and snapped structure, and with design, my favorite pieces are the ones that utilize natural textures, rather than synthetic patterns; variety is the spice of life.
Finally, while both using grids and not using grids have their place, it is important not to go too far in either direction; grids have the ability to become a crutch, while a free form pattern can be confusing and distracting, but with any skill, the more you practice and see what works, the better judgment you develop for future creation, and ultimately, any dynamic variation will be better achieved without grids.
(Side note; I still use graph paper 
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