The Golden Section

The golden section is a series of graphical proportional relationships that follow a pattern of 1:1.618. Human beings are naturally drawn to these relationships because of the harmonious relationships that exist between the various parts, but also because of the amount of variety that these relationships create.These forms have a sense of rhythm that is usually more interesting than shapes that have a more predicitable proportional relationship such as squares or rectangles.

The earliest writings about the Golden Section proportions can be found in the work of the Greek scholar and architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio better known to the world as Vitruvius. Vitruvius based his ideas of the golden section on the perfectly proportioned human body where all of the parts were in harmony. He felt that temples and other buildings should imitate this tendency for harmony throughout all of its component parts.

Vitruvius' ideas became a standard part of art education during the Renaissance. Both Leonardo DaVince and Albrecht Durer used Vitruvius' ideas extensively in their work. During the 20th century these same ideas came to be used in more conceptual graphic art forms by visual designers such as Le Corbusier, A. M. Cassandre and Josef Muller-Brockmann.