Art and design is infamously subjective. One person’s trash can be another’s masterpiece. But luckily there is an age-old number that can help aid your designs into scientifically-proven beauty: the Golden Ratio. Mona Lisa Golden Ratio Mona Lisa Golden Ratio via Simply.Science Have you ever secretly wondered, ‘What’s so great about the Mona Lisa?’ The answer is the Golden Ratio. Otherwise known as The Golden Section, Golden Mean, or the Greek letter ‘phi’, the special database Golden Ratio is a very handy number that helps you create beautiful, perfectly balanced designs that are aesthetically satisfying on a deep cerebral level.
Cool, huh? Although art and design are often led by instinct and creativity, the Golden Ratio uses mathematics to transform your image-making, layout, typography and much more. So let’s get into it. What is the Golden Ratio? — The Golden Ratio is the number used when two quantities are divided in a way that their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger one special database of the two quantities. That number is 1.618, also called Phi. illustration of a cat within golden spiral Illustration using the golden ratio, by Vladanland The easiest way to demonstrate this is by using the Fibonacci Sequence. Without going into too much detail, this sequence is the sum of the two numbers before forever and ever (and ever).
Back in the day the Greeks used the Fibonacci Sequence to form a visual pattern to aid their designs. When you turn the sequence into squares and lay them side-by-side to create rectangles, a spiral (called the Golden Spiral) starts to form. the golden ratio example of squares forming the golden spiral Don’t let a few equations scare you off! The Golden Ratio is actually a lot simpler than it looks. And it’s found everywhere. The Golden Spiral appears in nature all around us. From hurricanes to flowers, galaxies to shells… and even those weird mutant cauliflowers you get at the grocery store sometimes. romanesco broccoli Romanesco Broccoli via The Curious Mango golden ratio in special database nature Golden Ratio in Nature by Mate Marschalko via medium How to use the Golden Ratio in graphic design.