Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,278
30,339



goldenratio.jpg



Apple's logo artists have infused the iCloud logo with some mathematical elegance. In this case, the golden ratio or φ.

The circles in the 'puffs' of the iCloud are sized in a ratio of 1:1.6, an approximation of golden ratio, as discovered by Australian designer Alan van Roemburg. It seems unlikely the proportion was unintentional; Apple's artists simply have an acute sense of the history of design and mathematics.

The golden ratio has been around since at least Euclid and Pythagoras. Fans of the Da Vinci Code should know it too, as Dan Brown has referenced φ several times in his books. No wonder iCloud seems so elegant and aesthetically pleasing.

Hat tip to John Gruber

Article Link: iCloud Logo Infused With Golden Ratio
 

emaja

macrumors 68000
May 3, 2005
1,706
11
Chicago, IL
So, how long before Apple gets sued by these Euclid and Pythagoras guys - whoever they are - for using their proprietary ratios?

...and yes, this is a poor attempt at humor.
 

Gav2k

macrumors G3
Jul 24, 2009
9,216
1,608
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Very apple like
 

ThanatosId

macrumors regular
Jun 29, 2007
177
0
So, how long before Apple gets sued by these Euclid and Pythagoras guys - whoever they are - for using their proprietary ratios?

...and yes, this is a poor attempt at humor.

Ummm, I think God would have to be the one to sue them ;)
 

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
Giving them too much credit. They don't care about the minor details that much.

Image

I agree with that -- but you'd also be surprised how widely the Golden Ratio is used, unintentionally :)

Exactly. The mystique of the Golden Ratio is fun, but reality is more boring :)

I know the iCloud post was just for fun, so I’m not slamming it. But as a matter of interest: the Golden Ratio has NOT been intentionally used by great artists through history. You can find something “close” to that ratio in any image if you look for it. It’s like finding faces in clouds (no pun).

You could pick ANY ratio, say, 11-to-17, and find something very close to it somewhere in just about any image.

In modern times, the ratio is better-known and some certainly do use it. Apple may have too... but it’s a little off (thanks, stewart) and given that it was designed on a computer, I think the golden ratio in the logo is nothing intentional.

Read Mario Livio’s book, The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi. And you won’t be disappointed: for every myth about The Golden Ratio that he dismantles on solid historical research, there’s some other thing you never knew about the number that’s even cooler, AND true. (Like the ways that numbers related to it appear in nature.)
 

Sjhonny

macrumors 6502
Feb 25, 2011
287
0
The land of the cucumbers
Current screen resolutions are 1:1.6 as well... or 10:16

1050 x 1.6 = 1680

although 1:sqrt(2) would be way easier to work with. Those are the ISO proportions of paper. So you could always easily fit two A4's on one screen. The Golden Ratio is 1:sqrt(5/4) and besides existing in nature and therefore being considered beautiful, it doesn't have any real use in our society.
 

Lukeyy19

macrumors 6502a
Feb 16, 2010
771
3
England, UK
surely this is exactly the point of the Golden Ratio, that good artists/designers will unintentionally come very close to this Ratio, because that is the point at which something looks it's best.

hence why it's called the GOLDEN Ratio...
 

munkery

macrumors 68020
Dec 18, 2006
2,217
1
The golden ratio is also commonly found in nature. For example, flowers, pine cones, & etc.

People inherently prefer compositions with this ratio. It is possible the icon designer ended up with this ratio by trial and error given that a preference for this ratio appears to be evolutionary, as in genetically based.

Although, the golden ratio is taught in design theory courses as well.

Also, individuals in cultures that read left to right also prefer the highest point in relation to the golden ratio to be located on the right side of the composition.

Although, the position of the highest focal point in the composition can be manipulated to create various visually aesthetic effects if other elements in the composition balance the image.

This is taught in design theory courses as well.

I noticed this right away when I originally saw the iCould icon. :rolleyes:

I notice that the focal point of your avatar pic meets the parameters I have defined above.
 
Last edited:

ratzzo

macrumors 6502a
Apr 20, 2011
829
35
Madrid
Whoa, cool stuff. I wonder in what else Apple can we find such things. I would have never noticed that!
 

Zoreke

macrumors member
Jul 26, 2010
69
0
Cool! but let me tell you that a good and experienced designer does this automatically, the eye knows when something is right (golden ratio).

We did an experiment with a golden ratio caliper and measured some of our desings that looked good (logos, packs, illustrations, ads, etc) and they all matched the golden ratio magical proportion.

Since the proportion exist on nature, all that we as designers do is to apply it to our daily work and make things look nice! We are just extending our design.

The logo desingers probably didn't planned that coukd that hard but the desinger is really good and apply the golden ratio to everything he/she does.

Cheers

:D
 

Sjhonny

macrumors 6502
Feb 25, 2011
287
0
The land of the cucumbers
People inherently prefer compositions with this ratio.

Any supporting research concerning this theory besides Renaissance philosophers or 19th, begin 20th century romantic painters? Le Corbusier based it's modulor on phi, but that only applies to humans. I understand that people in paintings and statues with phi correct proportions will appear more aesthetically (might be evolutionary), but why would things like displays look nicer with golden ratio proportions?
 

jonnyz

macrumors newbie
May 28, 2008
21
0
Done before by Apple

I remember reading this article a while back that pointed out how close the iPod (Classic) is to the Golden Ratio. And as previously stated, some screens such as the current MB/MBP are 16:10.
 

baryon

macrumors 68040
Oct 3, 2009
3,875
2,922
That's a beautiful logo anyway. Love this new brushed metal style. It's different than the "old" OS X brushed metal, and also different than the glossy bubble icons (iTunes, Mac App Store), which is nice.
 

PlaceofDis

macrumors Core
Jan 6, 2004
19,241
6
That's a beautiful logo anyway. Love this new brushed metal style. It's different than the "old" OS X brushed metal, and also different than the glossy bubble icons (iTunes, Mac App Store), which is nice.

i'm actually not liking the brushed metal look. a flat black or blue or something would be much less dated looking imo. but it is wonderfully symmetrical.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.