Grid & Composition intermediate pragmaticeditorialflexible

Hierarchical Grid

An irregular grid derived from the content rather than imposed on it.

What it does

Where a modular grid is regular in advance, a hierarchical grid is built by arranging the material until the proportions look right, then formalising those positions into a reusable structure. Newspapers and complex magazines use it because their content genuinely varies in importance and length. The discipline is that once derived it must be obeyed, otherwise it is not a grid but a series of one-off decisions.

The prompt

An editorial page for [Subject] on a hierarchical grid: columns of deliberately unequal width derived from the content, a wide primary column, a narrow sidebar and a full-width band, with irregular but consistently repeated horizontal divisions. Every element aligned to that irregular structure. One serif for text and one grotesque for furniture. Matte coated stock.

Replace [Subject] with what you are shooting. Everything else is deliberate: the gear, stock and lighting are what push a generator towards this look.

Works well in

Midjourney, FLUX, Ideogram

Pairs with

Modular Grid Swiss International Style

The Prompt Atlas

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