Design and math are good friends. While I may not be a pro at math, some things are just plain good design sense. A good example of this is the golden mean. You probably already use the golden mean in your scrapbook layouts or quilts and didn’t even know it. It’s such a universal principle that it is also called the divine proportion and the golden ratio.
Here’s the basic premise (for those of us using it for design or creative purposes). The golden mean is the line or place in a regular rectangle so that when the line is placed, a square is created within the rectangle along with a second rectangle.
One of the most perfect rectangles is one where the rectangle left over can further be broken down into two more squares.
So how does that apply to layouts? You could use the mean (which is the place that your eye naturally falls) to create dynamic relationships in your layouts. You could use it very obviously (as in my example below) OR use the general principle. Check out my example. Of course, there are other things at play here (color, proximity, etc). But notice how everything looks in balance.
I hope this little tidbit can be useful to you are you create layouts!
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Tags: Carina Gardner, Design Theory, Digital Scrapbooking, Golden Mean, Golden Ratio
Love this, Carina!
Your explanation makes much more sense than what I read in a design book. I was trying to figure out how to use the nautilus shell in a “designing” way. Thanks for the clarification. (I’m in your Illustrator 101 class on Jessica Sprague.)
That is so awesome, it’s like Math for scrapbookers, now that’s my kind of math!
This is one of the best posts I have seen on this topic
Your webLog is one of my favorite. I m gonna bookmark, thank you.