Layout

The plan of a page before it holds anything: where things go and why. Composition decided in advance, so nothing is improvised under pressure.

A layout is the page decided before the content arrives: zones assigned, priorities ranked, breathing room reserved. Made in advance, it is judgement exercised calmly; improvised at the deadline, it is triage. Templates are simply layouts that keep their promises across many pages.

The test of a layout is hostile content: the headline twice the expected length, the image with the wrong crop, the list of eleven where three were planned. Good structure absorbs these without buckling. We design layouts with worst-case content first, then let the good days look effortless.