The Golden Ratio And How To Use It In Graphic Design

The Golden Ratio And How To Use It In Graphic Design

Have you ever wondered what made the Mona Lisa such a famous and well-known piece of art? The solution can be found in Leonardo da Vinci’s use of the Golden Ratio in his masterpieces. It enables you to produce compositions that are finely balanced and proportioned, as well as aesthetically appealing on a profoundly psychological basis.

The Golden Ratio, which is approximately equal to a 1:1.61 ratio, can be represented by a Golden Rectangle. This is a rectangle in which if a square (side length equal to the shortest side of the rectangle) is removed, the rectangle that remains has the same proportions as the original rectangle.
True, imagination and creative expression can be the driving forces behind art and architecture.
However, integrating these elements with the Golden Ratio adds a mathematical factor into the equation. Learn graphic design with Blue Sky Graphics and put the golden ratio to use!

As a result, the ability to produce proportionately perfect, stunning templates that speak subconsciously to your audience will be transformed.

The Golden Ratio’s Scientific Basis

In a nutshell, the Golden Ratio is represented by the number 1.618. If two numbers are separated so that their ratio is equal to the ratio of their total to the greater of the two numbers, this ratio is used.

The Fibonacci sequence is the easiest way to describe the ratio. This series advances by adding the two numbers preceding the next, as follows: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and so on.
The Fibonacci sequence was used by the ancient Greeks to construct a visual blueprint that aided their designs. It is no surprise that they are still regarded as the ultimate masters of painting, sculpture, and architecture today. As the series is divided into squares and set out to form concentric rectangles, an exponentially expanding ‘Golden Spiral’ appears.

This scientific and mathematical terminology can seem daunting at first, but it do not have to be. The Golden Ratio is much more simplistic than it seems, and it can be found in abundance in nature.
This number underpins the shapes of seashells, planets, honeycombs, trees, winds, and creatures, resulting in their dazzling visual beauty.

Putting the Golden Ratio to Use

In terms of graphic design, the Golden Ratio provides a basic number that can be used to arrange the design’s otherwise artistic and haphazard nature.
You will use it to calculate the value of another element by multiplying the size of one element by 1.618. Some artists use it to decide the appropriate amount of white or blank space to use in a design to avoid it being too stark or cluttered.

You could even use the Golden Spiral as an overlay to change the location of an element or even use the ratio to design your simple templates, illustrations, and typography.
Here are few helpful hints for using the Golden Ratio to perfect your art and infuse scientific elegance into your graphic designs.

It can be used in the typography

Try incorporating a communications hierarchy into the template, whether it contains the text. Posters, blogs, and invites all need different text sizes, and you can use this ratio to direct the scale of your typography without any guesswork.

Assume you want to evaluate the text hierarchy for important text (X), medium-importance text (Y), and unimportant text (Z) (Z). If you use 12px as the smallest font size, multiply 12 by 1.618 to get a reference for larger text sizes.

It can be used to direct the picture compositions

The photos in your projects should still be visually harmonious, and you may need to take a step back and reassess your work from time to time. And if you do not have the time to do this, the Golden Spiral will serve as a reference. Overlay the spiral onto the photographs and see which items can go where and if they are as harmonious as they seem to the naked eye.

The spiral will help you decide where your focal points should be, where to centre headlines and text, and which items can be shifted to better your style.

Use it to create a logo

A well-designed logo is an integral component of any company’s brand image, and any logos you create can express a company’s key messages in a matter of seconds. It would be best if you used the Golden Ratio in your logo design to automatically attract new buyers and make them bond with your brand. Surprisingly, the ratio has been used in the logo designs of some of the world’s most popular brands, including National Geographic, Google, Apple, Pepsi, and Twitter.

When creating an accurate logo, you can use the Golden Spiral as an overlay or re-imagine the Fibonacci series as a grid to serve as the basis.

Make use of it in the job templates

Design layouts can easily become complex, particularly if you need to incorporate a lot of different elements. Fortunately, you can conveniently use the Golden Spiral to direct and location the location of each critical feature. Since the human eye is instinctively attracted to the spiral’s centre, we suggest placing the most significant message or feature here.

It is useful during the wire-framing period. Using the ratio during wire-framing will help you design a system and size the different aspects of the user interface correctly. It may also be used to crop images while keeping the proportions and without stretching or unsightly optical distortion.

It is All about Beauty Perception

The golden ratio’s significance and interest in fashion, architecture, and design are all about the interpretation of elegance and aesthetics.

The human brain perceives pictures of golden proportions as more physically appealing than images without. This is an unproven hypothesis, but it has been extensively researched in the area of why our brain tells us what aspects are pleasing and others aren’t.

The golden ratio is thought to have the mystical ability to imbue objects with natural charm, causing our minds to consider them as precious. What has not been confirmed is whether this is something we have come to believe or whether it is scientifically accurate.