The Dot Grid for Creativity with a Concept

Nothing but empty pages - space for thoughts, ideas, projects. At brandbook, we pay a lot of attention to the “blank sheet of paper” so that new worlds can emerge on it.

In the mid-1990s, we developed the fine grid with the subtle dots for the white pages of our notebooks. An absolute milestone in our history, and a signpost for the stationery industry. Today, the dot grid is an indispensable part of notebooks, sketchbooks, and journals. Many notebook manufacturers have referred to the dot grid since. And it even found its way into the digital world and is used by a very well-known app. Our innovation has now become the international standard for notebooks and is therefore a daily companion for many people.

Creativity with a Concept

Anyone who uses our notebooks will quickly sense the advantages of the dot grid. The fine dots provide guidance without limiting the space too much. If they were missing, writing and drawing would become sloped and out of shape more quickly. Compared to pure white pages, the dot grid offers a minimum of orientation. In comparison to lined or squared pages, it offers more freedom and a flexible structure that makes both writing and drawing easier. Lines and squares tend to dominate the image and can be restrictive. Especially with sketches, it is disruptive when lines or squares run through the design. The dot grid gives an idea of ​​a line without the boundaries of the actual line.

The Grid as an Organizing Principle

Although we invented the dot grid for notebooks, the organizing principle lying underneath goes back to ancient times. Grids have played a role in many areas of life since the very early days of human civilisation. “Raster,” the German word for grid, derives from Latin “rastrum” for rake. The connection to the parallel furrows a rake draws can easily be made. Using vertical and horizontal lines in a strictly geometric or rhythmic way, grids divide surfaces and spaces. They structure data and visual artifacts as well as architecture and even cities. Ancient Greek Miletus was characterized by houses and streets arranged in a square grid. The Romans later adopted this form for their cities. Early cultures such as the Ancient Egyptians or the Maya used lines to organize their drawings and writings. And later, in the Renaissance, painters used a thread grid as a tool to depict 3D on a 2D canvas.

Dot and Grid in Art and Design

At the beginning of the 20th century, the grid advanced to be a demonstrative organizing principle. This was displayed by famous representatives of modernism such as artists Piet Mondrian with his abstract surfaces, and Sol LeWitt with his cubes, or the architect Mies van der Rohe with his rationalist buildings. Dots also became en vogue, and from then on were no longer just used as a tool for systematization, but as a conscious stylistic device. Hardly anyone is better known for his dots than the pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, who used them to allude to modern printing technology.

Dots and grid patterns are indispensable, especially in printing technology and visual design. The printing press already knew the grid pattern when it was invented. Today, grids form the basis for layouts in books, newspapers, websites, or posters. The composition of baseline, image and column grids largely determines the appearance of graphic design. Dots can be found in offset and digital printing, where many small dots create a colour surface. After all, our displays and the digital worlds are also based on a grid made up of many small pixels, from which the images are generated. Since printing technology and visual design are genres brandbook works in, the dot grid fits our notebooks perfectly well.

Well Thought Through to the Last Detail

It took us some time to arrive at the ideal dot grid. Starting with the square grid, we developed the angle grid with interrupted squares, and then the dot grid evolved from that. We chose the top left dot in the angle grid as the starting point. Airiness and flexibility were our guiding principle. The brandbook dot grid is so subtle that it almost completely disappears when copied or scanned. This is also because our dot grid appears in a subtle grey. Using 100 percent black, it would be far too dominant on the white page. We offer four standard versions of the dot grid. Our classics include grid spacing of 5 and 3.5 millimeters, plus the very fine mini dot grid.

Versatility as a Strength

The brandbook dot grid offers diverse possibilities to creatively capture notes and ideas. Whether you write small, or your handwriting needs more space – it’s no problem with the dot grid. Lines, tables, as well as geometric figures and perspectives can be sketched quickly by connecting the dots. You can choose whether to do this freehand – the slightly imperfect line certainly has its charm – or with a ruler. Not only we, but also many of our customers are convinced: the dot grid is the ideal basis for journals, sketches, and diagrams.