I still find it so fascinating that something as mathematical in nature as the Fibonacci sequence can be so beautiful. You wouldn't expect nature to boil down to something so re-creatable. Nature itself just exudes a very "real" and imperfect quality, but is actually extremely precise. This shows how even nature uses a grid pattern, and in order to find the nature order it possesses, so do we. The golden mean is biologically appealing to us, and since it so prominent in nature, we are hard wired to prefer and better understand things that follow the same pattern, from faces to shells to page layouts. Things that don't follow this mean, like a person drawn out of proportion, just look...off. Most of us don't realize why when it happens in our daily life, but we just know. Playing with this ratio is the perfect way to subtly convey a message without using words. And whether you want your audience to be aesthetically pleased, or maybe you want to make them visually uncomfortable, keeping in mind the golden mean is key.
I also love the idea of creating a rhythm or a velocity for the page, both in words and in paragraphs. It is true, a letter, based on its position on the page, can imply movement, and I think this is very powerful, especially for very visual people. However, I never realized that the gravity effect on a letter could draw out basic fears and desires, like how it said a tilted letter can imply falling, which evokes feelings about humans' fear of falling. This is such a base instinct, but is completely true. The positioning of the letter dives into our sub conscious and pulls out reactions we don't even know are there until we develop an impression about the piece, and then are left wondering, now why do I feel that? It's amazing how many messages we can pick up just from layout.
No comments:
Post a Comment