THE GOLDEN RATIO IN DESIGN AND THE REAL WORLD
Insights
Oct 5, 2025
Graphic and UI design
Designers use the golden ratio all across their designs, and layouts to achieve harmony, and ideal symmetry. With layout grids designers will make the grid columns wider then the last by 1.618 giving an aesthetically pleasing look to the design. With typography line height and line spacing are times the ratio in order to achieve a flawless font layout. Many brand marks also use this to balance curves in their logo.
Architecture and industrial design
From ancient buildings to sculptures, architecture is rife with the ratio, which is why when you see and old building or cathedral it gives a sense of awe. Da Vinci himself thought the ratio to carry some divinity in it, hence why he used it in nearly everything he did, including in his drawing of the Vitruvian man, which is the depiction of the human body fitting perfectly within the ratio. Furniture, smart phones, and posters share this ratio also to create natural balance.
Plants and flowers/galaxies and hurricanes
Many plants follow the Fibonacci sequence, closely related to the ratio in the form of seeds, leaves, and petals. on a sunflower the seeds spiral in an almost perfect visually flawless manner, pine cones and pineapples have scales that form in the way to reflect the golden ratio. Spiral galaxies like the milky way, and hurricane formations make a logarithmic spiral pattern that binds to the golden ratio
why it matters
The golden ratio is not just a magical formular, it is a natural order and balance to things, look closely enough at nature and you will find an ideal symmetry to the lines, curves, animals and people. In design it is a helpful tool to bring harmony and order, in nature it naturally occurs without design, or be it the universes design.
