Grids and Layouts

Grids are used in publications to help with placement of text and images, which gives pages structure, as the grid acts as a template. Plus, grids help to give consistency to a publication so that all the pages have a similar look to them, making it clear that they all belong to the same book. Also using grids to place text means it doesn't become cluttered and also helps to give you a starting point when designing a page.
  When placing text within grids designers usually stick to 40-80 characters per line and a font size of 12 pt. Applying these specifications ensures that the text was a similar look throughout a document and keeping to a set amount of characters per line means that it is unlikely for there to be a word left over at the end of a paragraph.
  Furthermore when combining text and illustration using grids helps to arrange them in such a way that one won't over-power the other. It also ensures that the document doesn't become crowded and complicated. 
  When trialling the use of grids myself I did struggle with visualising the page in regards to placing my my illustrations with text. However after choosing an alternative style grid to place my text into, I found it really helpful to arrange the page. Therefore I will definitely look into using this method for my final brief as it will help me to arrange larger amounts of text.