The Golden Ratio

Before entering the wonderful world of Advertising, our Marketing Director (Adrian Bentley), studied Fine Art at Bradford School of Art (Hockney’s old haunt no less) and later trained as an Art Teacher.

After reading a recent report in the guardian entitled ‘Accidental Renaissance’, showcasing modern photographs that cohere to the principles of a centuries old formula (including one of a Ukrainian parliamentary brawl and another of Frank Lampard), Adrian treated us to a lesson in the ‘Golden Ratio’.

It’s a concept originally conceived by Leonardo Fibonacci, a twelfth century Mathematician, and adopted by Renaissance artists as the universal framework for creating the perfect composition.  

Fibonacci devised a number sequence that represents a ‘natural order’ generated by adding the previous two numbers in the list together to form the next; 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55… Hence creating a perfect spiral. You will probably recognise all this if you have read The Da Vinci Code or seen the film - the numbers are used to unlock a safe.

Look around you – the Fibonacci sequence is everywhere. Next time you’re chopping a cauliflower, take a good look and you'll see two spirals running in opposite directions. Now count the florets in one of the spirals. You’ll find they follow the Fibonacci sequence.

No coincidence then that award-winning photographer Phillip Lane referenced it in Douglas Scott’s latest advertising campaign too.