Back to Journal
Design·Mar 2026· 6 min
Bento grids: when they work, when they don't
A defense — and a critique — of the bento layout pattern.
Bento grids became a meme because they're easy to recognize and hard to do well. The good ones use scale and density to create a visual hierarchy that mirrors information hierarchy. The bad ones are just rectangles of different sizes filled with stock content.
The test: remove all the words. Does the layout still tell you what's important? If yes, you've earned the pattern. If no, you're decorating.