Golden Meaning: Fifty-five graphic experiments

An attempt to demystify mathematics, Golden Meaning is not just a book for graphic designers. Whatever your interest or level of knowledge these 55 interpretations will inform and delight. A contemporary take on a golden oldie, Golden Meaning challenges perceptions of what – and who – graphic design is for.

Written By: Katy Cowan

25 February 2014

Golden Meaning book cover featuring the golden ratio number 1.618 in large gold numerals with coloured dots, printed with fluorescent and metallic foils

As Mathematician, broadcaster, writer and Golden Meaning advisor Alex Bellos observes in his introductory essay: "This book deserves attention from the maths community as much as it does the design one".

Bellos’s Alex’s Adventures in Numberland was a 2010 Sunday Times bestseller and New Scientist Book of the Year. His latest title, Alex Through the Looking-Glass, publishes in 2014. Golden Meaning itself shines, with pages printed in one colour – a gold special – and cover run in luminescent fluorescent yellow and incorporating gold and holographic silver metallic foils.

Close-up of the Golden Meaning book cover showing the golden ratio numbers 1.618 with coloured dots and editorial credits in red and blue text

Open book showing geometric diagrams illustrating the golden ratio progression from linear divisions to increasingly dense circular patterns, titled The Golden Ratio

Open book spread showing two pages with white pixelated text on kraft paper backgrounds, displaying typographic interpretations of mathematical concepts from Golden Meaning

Following their first book Page 1: Great Expectations, and continuing with GraphicDesign&'s ambition to create intelligent, vivid books that explore how graphic design connects with all other things and the value that it brings, founders Lucienne Roberts and Rebecca Wright worked with mathematician and writer Alex Bellos to set a mathematical design challenge. They chose the golden ratio as their subject matter because of its long-standing importance in art and design as well as in science and mathematics.

The 55 designers’ responses to the brief show a huge range of creative ideas. From Rose Blake’s delightful realisation that parent and child stand in the golden ratio at approximately the moment the child moves to secondary school to Homework’s cheeky Golden Ass, via typography, flapjacks, wine, grid systems and some hipster specs, Golden Meaning provides endless moments of humour and insight – all printed in golden ink.

Alongside the publication of Golden Meaning, GD& have re-launched their website with an offer for early orders: a Golden Meaning and Page 1 bundle for £27.50.