How I Learned to Use the Golden Ratio in My Logo Design
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Since everything has slowed down a bit over the past few weeks, what with being in the middle of a pandemic an all, I’ve been using the time to focus on boosting my visual and UI design skills. I’ve been working through some of the lessons in the UI Track of Flatiron School’s design program as well as gathering and studying other resources. Along with studying, I decided to put what I’m learning in action and work on designing some visual elements that I’ve been meaning to add to my portfolio. For a couple of days this week I worked on designing a logo for my personal brand. Along with the branding curriculum I’ve been working through, I also decided to figure out how to actually use the Golden Ratio in my design process.
So, first thing’s first: What is the Golden Ratio?
“Most people attribute the origin of “Golden Ratio” to the Pythagoreans. In the 4th century BC, ancient Greek mathematician Eudoxus systematically studied the question and established the theory of proportion; his works were later collected and elaborated on by the Greek mathematician Euclid. With its strict proportions, this ratio is considered the most ideal proportion in architecture. Its great aesthetic value is instrumental in arousing people’s sense of beauty.” (from Visual Harmony: Proportion in Graphic Design, pg. 10 -excellent book btw!)
Numerically speaking, the Golden Ratio is 1.618 to1.
Seems simple enough, right? The Golden Ratio has such proportional beauty, it been used in art, architecture, design, and many other disciplines for centuries. I first learned of it while studying Art History in college. Everyone’s favorite polymath, Leonardo DaVinci, was a fan of the golden ratio:
And you can also see the Golden Spiral in Hokusai’s The Great Wave:
Neat, right? Now onto design! I’ve known that proportions are really important in design since I started on my journey into visual design a few years ago. I also learned about how this ratio can be used in page layouts and typography to establish proportional hierarchy.
Now, I’ve seen cool diagrams for logo design for years–where designers used squares and circles in a seemingly strategic and meticulous way. What I didn’t understand was how they actually knew where to put those circles, squares, and angles to create the harmonious forms making up their designs.
So I dug in and decided it was high time I figured out exactly how to effectively use proportions, and specifically the Golden Ratio in my designs. I’ve been struggling to come up with a personal logo for my portfolio for a couple months, and wanted to focus on finally designing one as a part of an assignment from the UI curriculum. But if I was going to finally design a logo that I was proud of and that I wanted to use for my personal brand, I wanted to take it up a notch and learn how to design a logo like the pros.
First I started out by roughly sketching several ideas that incorporated my initials “D” and “O” into a logo.
Next, I chose my top three ideas and took photos of them. I uploaded the photos into my Sketch file so I could begin to digitize them and explore several iterations of each.
After that, it was time to really get down to business and learn about how to use the Golden Ratio in logo design. I read an article on How to Create Golden Ratio Grid, and watched this video on How to Design a Logo with the Golden Ratio which proved to be quite helpful.
What I learned was that it’s actually quite a bit easier than I thought. You simply start by making a square. Then make another square next to that one. Then another one that equals the same width as the previous two squares combined, and so on and so forth. Then make circles within each sized square that are the exact same dimensions as the square. You can continue this pattern to make as many circles as you’d like increasing in size each time. Now the most important thing about this process is you cannot change the size of the shapes you created. You have to use them in their original dimensions in order to get perfect proportions.
Then begin to build your logo using the circles and squares both as tools of measurement and as the actual forms of your logo.You can see how I built my letters “D” and “O” using the various circle sizes from my Golden Ratio grid.
Once I had my main shapes down, I began to build up the other designs I chose to explore for my logo.
After I was happy with the black and white forms making up my logos, I experimented with color to make them really stand out. And ta-da! Here is the sheet of my most polished logos:
Now, I just have to choose one to add to my personal brand and put on my portfolio. Decisions, decisions….
