Golden Meaning: Fifty-five graphic experiments

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.

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.