The golden ratio is the idea that a specific proportion (1:1.618) looks natural and is the most visually appealing proportional split, and so it is used a lot in graphic design. It creates the golden spiral, which will continue to spiral endlessly regardless of scale.
The golden ratio is used in the National Geographic Logo for the yellow rectangle. The height of the rectangle is 1.618 times the width of the rectangle.
Toyota used it more complexly in their logo, mirroring the proportion sizes to use as guides for the placing and sizes of the concentric circles.
The golden ratio can also be used in text in terms of the heading to body copy size ratio.
Canons
Canons are grid systems that designers use to aid their design. They consistantly produce visually pleasing design, but because of this it can promote lazyness and reduce creativity in designers.
The Van De Graaf grid is used to position text on double page spreads, and considers the single page in relation to the double page size. Van De Graaff suggested that the grid works best with a width:height ratio of 2:3 on each single page.
The Romek Marber Grid is used for the covers of a lot of penguin books, and allows for easy customisation within it, whilst still retaining the consistency of a grid system.
My Thoughts
I suppose subconsciously I've always tried to use grids and canons when working, but I've just done it pretty badly. What this session as taught me is that it's important to consider weather you're doing a double or single page spread, as that my affect your grid, as shown by the irregular margins when you consider the Van De Graaff grid on a single page.
With regards to the golden ratio, I'm not sold on the idea of it having any sort of links to perfection or anything like that, but the proportions of it do look nice and it does seem like a good way to come up with a visually appealing grid system, although it is quite limiting at times.
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