There is no getting away from the fact that numbers and design are intrinsically and intricately linked together. Even though, when we think of design we think of slightly crazed or eccentric artists with their heads engrossed in labyrinths of forms and shapes and colours and textures, and not a thought of sterile mathematics or boring numbers crosses our mind. But the truth is numbers and mathematics determines every aspect of design from dimensions to proportion to symmetry to costs of production - every which way we look at it, design is numbers.
Remember Fibonacci and his golden ratio or the divine proportion, as its known? It determines the proportion of the worlds smallest building block ie the atom and those of celestial bodies as well. Nature relies on it to maintain balance and it crops up amazingly everywhere - for example the ratio of male bees to female bees in a bee hive is the golden ratio and sunflowers which have opposing spirals of seeds have the same ratio between diameters of each rotation. Nature it seems designed everything on numbers and patterns and so do artists unconsciously and inexplicably every time they go through the design process. Heres ode to magnificent numbers in design - furniture that is numbers!
