polygrid: hear a design grid as a rhythm and a chord

Where each row fuses into a tone: 20 beats a second. Tuning never changes the ratios.

The grid

Swiss designers built page grids on these ratios in the 1950s.

Karl Gerstner pushed it further. His grid for Capital magazine has 58 units, so one page divides cleanly into 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 columns: several rhythms on one page. A 12-column web grid does the same with halves, thirds and quarters.

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