Numbers

1x1.618. Looking at a sea shell, the parthenon, light switches, and your face, you will see this. It's the perfect ratio, rectangle, and mean. Nature creates things in this formula, and man naturally finds it the most pleasing. Euclid said "A straight line is said to have been cut in extreme and mean ratio when, as the whole line is to the greater segment, so is the greater to the less." Beginning with a square, you draw a line from the middle point of one edge to an opposing corner, and make that line the radius of a circle. The point directly above the center point is the top of the golden rectangle.

"What," you might ask, "the hell, am I talking about?" Back in ancient Greek times, numbers were kind of a big deal. Pythagoras was a philosopher that was all about numbers. Much of what we know about music comes from what the Greeks knew about the application of ratios and numbers to lengths of stretched chords that when plucked, made specific sounds. Phidias, when constructing the parthenon, knew of this ratio, and implemented it into the structure's ultimate design. Today, mathematicians, architects, musicians, and artists like me, still use it. I'm not entirely sure why a rectangle with these proportions is such a big deal, especially since there are tons of studies on this idea. What I do know is that this ratio works all throughout nature, and it's a tried and tested shape/line/design that is proven over the centuries to be aesthetically pleasing.

I was trying to think of a size for a new illustration I'm doing, and I thought I'd give the golden rectangle a shot. When I laid out where the image would be on the page, I have to admit, it's a good rectangle.