What happens when a viewer observes one of our designs? How can we know how our work is being perceived? Psychology always plays a crucial role in graphic design because we aim to make an impact, communicate a message, and ensure that it is correctly perceived by our audience. Therefore, graphic design is not only about emotions but also about perception. Understanding the Gestalt Theory and its principles or laws will help us capture the attention of our viewers, stimulate creativity, and enhance the functionality of our designs.
In graphic design, we seek to visually influence or impact our audience. To achieve this effectively, we need to understand how human perception works, and this is where the Gestalt Theory comes into play.
You’ll find it very useful to comprehend how this theory works and how the audience assigns meaning to visual stimuli. Let’s delve into it!
What is the Gestalt Theory?
The Gestalt Theory or psychology was a movement that began in the 1920s in Berlin, Germany. Gestalt is a German word that means pattern, figure, or form. This movement aimed to make sense of how our minds perceive things as a whole rather than as individual elements.
The movement studied how our minds shape, through certain basic laws or principles, the elements that reach them through sensory channels or memory. They demonstrated that our brains always try to simplify and organize complex images because they are prepared to better understand the world around us.
The phrase “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” is often used to explain the Gestalt Theory.
How does Gestalt Psychology relate to visual perception and graphic design?
The main idea presented by Gestalt psychology is that when we perceive the world, despite various signals impacting us simultaneously, our minds organize them by summarizing the environment as shapes or groups of elements. It simplifies it. Remember this concept.
Therefore, the Gestalt Theory is also applicable to graphic design and even to interface design or web usability. For a design to work well, one must always consider not only the visual elements separately but also how the entirety of the design is perceived.
Over time, proponents of the Gestalt movement developed a series of basic principles of visual perception, also called Gestalt principles or laws of Gestalt, which have been extremely useful for graphic designers since then.
But before delving into the Gestalt principles and understanding how our perception works and why we tend to group elements, we need to know the 4 key ideas from which these principles were developed. Let’s quickly go through them.
Key Ideas of the Gestalt Theory
A. Emergence
The idea of emergence occurs when an object is perceived, and we interpret it based on previous information we already know. It is often used in logo design for companies. In the example above, our mind will visualize a dog before the individual shapes because it is a silhouette we are familiar with.
B. Reification
People can recognize objects even when parts of them are missing. Our brain matches what we see with familiar patterns stored in our memory to fill in the gaps.
C. Multi-stability
The concept of multi-stability is based on the fact that people often interpret ambiguous objects in more than one way. Our brains go back and forth seeking certainty. A well-known example illustrating this key idea of the Gestalt Theory is the famous illustration developed by the Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin. We all know it. The viewer is presented with two forms: two faces or a vase. You may prefer to see one or the other form, and you may spend some time observing it, trying to analyze which form is correct.
D. Invariance
People can recognize simple objects regardless of their rotation, scale, or translation. Our brains can perceive objects from different perspectives even if they appear different.
The Laws of Gestalt in Visual Perception and Graphic Design
Now that we know the 4 key ideas from which the members of the Gestalt Theory developed the laws, we can learn these principles and understand how they relate to graphic design.
As mentioned before, these principles attempt to explain how and when our minds perceive different visual components as part of a group. If one wants to dedicate themselves to graphic design, it is essential to know these principles because they will help create a structured and coherent work that captures the viewer’s attention.
Many design principles emerge precisely from the Gestalt Theory, so you will find that everything is closely related to what we have seen in previous articles, such as the 7 visual elements of graphic design and the 6 principles of graphic design. I encourage you to read them if you haven’t already, as they will help us better understand the Gestalt Theory.
I. Similarity Principle
The similarity principle is used to unite elements that are or are not close to each other. If we find them similar, we tend to see them as part of a group. Moreover, if a design is composed of similar objects, the viewer will perceive the whole as balanced and coherent. The greater the similarity between objects, the more coherence the work as a whole will convey.
The similarity between different elements can be in terms of shape, color, size, or texture.
Remember that, thanks to the similarity principle, we can generate emphasis on an element by breaking the pattern of similarity within the group. Cases where an object stands out from the rest and does not conform to similarity are called Anomaly.
II. Continuity Principle
The eye can visually create the continuity of a line. This principle is based on the idea that the human eye will always follow the smoothest, least forced, and most coherent visual path. The continuity principle can be very useful, for example, to point to an element in the design or when we need to guide the viewer’s gaze.
III. Closure Principle
When we perceive a figure that is not closed or delimited by lines, our mind tends to convey a sense of closure or complete form. The closure principle is a widely used technique in graphic design, especially in logo design. By perceiving an element as incomplete, our brain works to fill in the missing information.
IV. Proximity Principle
The proximity principle theorizes how we tend to group shapes or visual elements that are close to each other. For this, these objects must share some of these common characteristics: shape, color, size, or texture. On the other hand, if we increase the space between elements, we can achieve a sense of separation, even when the elements have common characteristics.
V. Figure and Ground Principle
The figure and ground principle are quite similar to the closure principle because it also takes advantage of how the brain processes negative space.
This principle describes the tendency of the human eye to see an object separated from its surroundings. Our mind cannot interpret the same element as both figure and ground simultaneously.
VI. Symmetry and Order Principle
This principle, also known as prägnanz (which means good figure), theorizes that elements with symmetry and order are also perceived as part of the same group. Furthermore, this principle establishes that our mind tends to analyze in the simplest way, organizing elements into symmetrical, regular, and stable figures.
According to this principle, a composition should never give a sense of disorder or imbalance. In graphic design, this is crucial, as otherwise, the viewer will waste time trying to find balance or locate what is missing, focusing on the composition rather than the message we are trying to convey.
VII. Common Fate Principle
In recent years, there is also talk of this common fate principle. This last law theorizes that objects and elements that appear to build a pattern or flow in the same direction are once again perceived as part of a group.
Final Words
Well, now you know the Laws of Gestalt and in which cases our visual perception tends to perceive elements as part of a group. What do you think? As you have seen, the laws of Gestalt form the basis of some graphic design principles. Now that you know them better, don’t forget to consider them every time you create a design to better control how it impacts visual perception.