NOTE: This session will be co-presented with Todd Nienkerk of Four Kitchens.

—————

Session goals include gaining a solid understanding of what grid design is, how it has evolved since its early beginnings in print, and how it can help expedite the design and templating process. This session will demonstrate the principles of grid-based theming and the NineSixty theme for Drupal. Subtheming NineSixty for rapid site design and deployment will be covered, as well as creating a custom grid system for any project. —————

Agenda

• Brief history of grid-based design.
• Philosophy behind 960.gs + How it works.
• Basics of grid-based theming.
• How the NineSixty theme implements and expands on 960.gs.
  • Content-first layout using "push" and "pull" classes.
  • Dynamic grid widths based on context.
  • Debugging tools and grid visualization.
  • Right-to-left (RTL) language support.
• Creating versatile, dynamic, and context-based layouts using NineSixty.
  • Subtheming NineSixty.
• How to build your own, custom grid system.

—————

Resources

As far as what to have on-hand, simply a laptop and an Internet connection will suffice. Attendees might want to read up on grid design, via the following resources...

Canonical Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_(page_layout)

960 Grid System: http://960.gs/

NineSixty, a Drupal theme based on 960.gs: http://drupal.org/project/ninesixty

Four Kitchens, a Drupal agency using NineSixty: http://fourkitchens.com/

Smorgasbord of grid resources: http://thegridsystem.org/

Khoi Vihn, design director of NY Times: http://subtraction.com/2004/12/31/grid-computi http://subtraction.com/2007/03/18/oh-yeeaahh

Mark Boulton on grids (Lead re-designer of Drupal.org) http://markboulton.co.uk/journal/comments/five_simple_steps_to_designing_grid_systems_part_1/