The PhiMatrix Concept
Here’s the concept of PhiMatrix Golden Ratio: No matter what the height or width of the grid, every line on the PhiMatrix grid is in a phi relationship (1.618:1) to the ones next to it. The beauty of the program is that it easily reveals the phi relationships that can be found in everything from the proportions of your face to price and timing moves in the stock market. (See http://www.goldennumber.net to explore further.
Controlling the PhiMatrix grid
When the program launches, you’ll see the PhiMatrix Grid and the Control Window with tool bar. The grid will be showing two vertical and two horizontal grid lines. These represent:
- the golden ratios of the grid’s height, from top to bottom and bottom to top, and
- the golden ratios of the grid’s width, from left to right and right to left
It looks similar to the familiar “rule of thirds”, but has far more inherent harmonies and capabilities to improve your design compositions.
Moving and resizing works just like most other programs. To move the grid, click and drag on the thick part of the top border. To resize the grid, click and drag on the thin borders around any side of the grid. You can also move and resize the grid from the keyboard using the arrow keys (resize) and shift – arrovw keys (move).
The buttons on the toolbar have the following functions:
Note that holding the control key while clicking an icon brings up an options window. Spinning the mouse wheel while over an icon changes the option selected.
Example: Apply the grid to a face
Now let’s apply this to an image of a face.
- Position the face: Move your browser scroll bar so that the image of the woman fully visible.
- Position the Control Window: Move the the Control Window to the left of the face.
- Change the grid color: Click on the Color icon on the Control Window to change it to gold or green.
- Position the left top of the grid: Click and drag the thick top border of the PhiMatrix grid so that the top and left sides align with the top left side of the red lines on the face. For precise positioning, with the Control Window highlighted, hold the Shift key and use the left, right, up and down cursors.
- Position the bottom right of the grid: Resize the grid by clicking and dragging on the lower right hand corner of the grid to align with the bottom right corner of the red lines on the face. For precise sizing, with the Control Window highlighted, use the left, right, up and down cursors.
- Display Golden Ratios in the Face: Click on the Grid icon to display the various Golden Ratio grids and observe how they reveal golden ratio proportions in the face.
Congratulations! You’ve just analyzed your first image, and shown how the phi proportions of the PhiMatrix grid determine the positions of the inside corners of the eyes, the teeth, nose and lips. You’ve now earned an honorary degrees in both “Phi”losophy and “Phi”ology. Play around on your own and you’ll other golden ratio proportions in the cupid’s bow of the lips in relation to the width of the mouth, the height of the eyes in relation to the top of the eye brows and more.
Example: Apply the grid to a logo
Now see how applying the Golden Ratio, Phi, achieves the same natural sense of beauty, balance and aesthetics in the arts and graphic design.
- Position the logo: Move your browser scroll bar so that the image of the logo above is fully visible at the top of your browser window.
- Position the Control Window: Move the the Control Window to the left of the logo.
- Change the Grid color: Click on the Grid color icon to change it to blue to make it easy to see.
- Change the Grid template: Click on the Grid icon so that it displays two horizontal and two vertical lines.
- Position the Grid: Drag the grid and resize it to overlay on the familiar Toyota logo. (Logo shown is for illustration purposes only. No affiliation or endorsement is implied.)
Learning more about the Golden Ratio
The easiest way to learn PhiMatrix is to experiment with the controls and watch the results. You can play with other examples in the Image Gallery, learn about all of its controls in the User Guide or explore more about applications of PhiMatrix in the Help and Tutorials section on professional graphic design, logo design, financial market analysis and more, as shown below. There also a tutorial video that shows how PhiMatrix can be applied to composition and cropping in award-winning photographs.
With PhiMatrix, you’ll find beauty and design in the world that you perhaps never realized was there. Go out and explore the magnificent design of creation and be inspired to create and design your own masterpieces, like Da Vinci and others before you.