Bauhaus Master, Jan Tschichold was highly skilled at applying this system of proportion to page layout. Not a bad endorsement for its use, since he is one of a handful of major designers who every typographer looks to for inspiration and guidance. He is an old school guy, worked about a hundred years ago, but was basically the Michelangelo of typography. Anyway, someone you should know and pay attention to:)

So, by now you have been introduced to the idea of the Golden Section and have also heard something about the Fibonacci number series (Fibonacci was another old school guy, but not a designer. He was a mathematician. Don’t let that scare you off though. What he did was simplify things so that we non-math folks can actually apply the Golden Section to what we do—Design! 

Mr. Fibonoaci said this is where the magic lives! It is an easy way of guaranteeing internal harmony and unity within any design. Wow! imagine that—a guarantee. How so Obi-Wan? Well, the series that goes by his name (Fibonacci, not Obi-Wan Kenobi) is this: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8… you get the rest if you are paying attention.

Above is a grid that visually illustrates this. The size of the cells are not all equal sized squares but instead are proportionately sized. They change size according to the Fibonacci Numbers.

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So to apply it—to specifically use it to determine margins in inDesign—you must first understand the idea that you are creating a visual relationship between the size of white space or margins as they relate to the overall page size. It quite similar to how you might cut a mat for a drawing, with the bottom wider than the top, etc. If you fail to understand this basic concept—ASK.

The second concept that is necessary to understand is that the numbers from Fibonacci symbolize proportion or a comparison of one thing to another. (a basic version of this, which is not based on Fibonacci, would be to say one thing is twice the size of something else— it is a comparison or proportion). So, using Fibonacci, the comparison changes as the numbers in the series go up. It is not always twice the previous size. Doing it with Fibonacci (sounds like a dance groove) instead creates a more dynamic and interesting but certainly harmonious visual relationship. It is dynamic, because it IS interesting but not as literally predictable as “twice the size”.

Ok lets do it!

After you have determined the correct Leading for your text type (next whole even number after whatever the default setting was), then do the following:

• First, using paper and pencil, write down the Fibonacci Number Series (FNS) so you see it in front of you.
• Second, write your Leading number under the FNS number 1.
• Third, double the Leading number and write it under FNS number 2.
• Fourth, triple the Leading number and write it under FNS number 3.
• Continue to do this process to at least FNS #13.

FNS:                  0   1      1    2     3     5     8   13…

Measurement    0   16   16   32   48   64   80   96…

You now have before you a little FNS reference cheat sheet that tells you what leading number in points, equals any one of the FNS numbers. Use this to fill in the settings for each of the separate margins. 

You now need to go to InDesign and do four things:

1. Go to inDesign Preferences>>Units and Increments and change the Vertical and Horizontal units to Points.
2. Go to the Main Menu at the top of the screen>>Window>> Open up the Pages Window
3. Double click the A-Master pages icon in the Pages Window so that what you do next will be applied to the Master Pages
   
4. Look in the Main Menu for Layout >> Margins and Columns to set up the size of the margins:

To make this work, you have to unlink the top, bottom, right, left entries from each other, so simply click on the little chain link so it has a diagonal line through it like in the example down below. Now you are ready to enter different numbers in each field.

First you have to make a design decision. Decide on which margin will be the smallest. You can pick anywhere on the FNS reference cheat sheet to use for the smallest. However, remember that you want this first setting to be the smallest size margin when compared to the other three margins so don’t pick one of the larger numbers. Which margin do you want to be next largest? Pick that margin and assign the next number from the FNS reference cheat sheet that comes after whatever number you picked for the smallest margin. Continue to the next larger and finally the largest margin picking from the next in lin line number from the FNS reference cheat sheet. (its really not that scary, you’re fooling yourself because of some previous relationship. You really are better than that)

If the leading was 16 and the smallest margin started at 2 on the FNS then applying the FNS to the layout margins could be this:

FNS:                  0   1      1    2     3     5     8   13…

Measurement    0   16   16   32   48   64   80   96…

• the top margin is the smallest (and in this example, started at 32. Remember you can start anywhere)
• the inside and outside margins both equal to one another and the second smallest (in this example 48)
• and the bottom is the largest (in this example 64)
• and the settings would look like this:

Remember, First decide on a whole even number for the leading of your text type (the main story text). That number is measuring the distance between lines of text—it is measurement. It always equals 1 on the FNS. Multiply it by the successive numbers in the Fibonacci series to find the correct measurements for the other margins. You decide which margins to apply the larger or smaller numbers. (remember back to your original vision for which margins you want larger, smaller or equal.—come on its a design decision 🙂

You can do this! Its a visual thing. not a math thing at all.