Design Fundamentals by thecon

design fundamentals gestalt theory Design Fundamentals

Design Fundamentals Gestalt Theory Designed by Michael Cuomo

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The best designers sometimes disregard the principles of design. When they do so, however, there is usually some compensating merit attained at the cost of the violation. Unless you are certain of doing as well, it is best to abide by the principles.â&#x20AC;? These principles, which may overlap, are used in all visual design fields, including graphic design, industrial design, architecture and fine art.

Design Fundamentals

William Lidwell Universal Principles of Design

introduction

The study of gestalt originated in Germany in the 1920s. It is a form of psychology that is interested in higher order cognitive processes relative to behaviorism. The aspects of gestalt theory that interests designers are related to gestaltâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s investigations of visual perception, principally the relationship between the parts and the whole of visual experience. The visual world is so complex that the mind has developed strategies for coping with the confusion. The mind tries to find the simplest solution to a problem. One of the ways it does this is to form groups of items that have certain characteristics in common.

The trick is to strike a balance between unity and variety. Too much unity and the design can look boring and repetitive; too much variety and it can look chaotic and disconnected. Understanding gestalt concepts can helps control unity and variety.

Design Fundamentals

Most of what you will study about gestalt is concerned with how these groups are formed and what effect they have on perception. The stronger the grouping, the stronger the gestalt. It is this grouping that contributes to the unity in a design. Gestalt is one of the most powerful tools available to a designer for creating unity. The same concepts that form groups can be reversed to ungroup items -- to make them look unique and stand alone. That is the basis for creating variety. Variety is what adds interest to an image.

Design Fundamentals

closure

A complex object is really a group of simple items that the mind puts together as a single entity. A face is a collection of eyes, ears, nose, mouth, etc. You can recognize a familiar face even if part of it hidden (with a hat or sunglasses for instance). Your mind supplies the missing parts if enough of the significant features are visible.

Design Fundamentals

This works with a simple geometric shape because you need only a few clues to remind you of the shape. More complex objects require more careful consideration as to what can and cannot be removed. Some information is critical and must be included; some information is unessential and can (and perhaps should) be eliminated.

Closure is used extensively in art. It is not so much the quantity, but rather the quality of the information that lets you read an image. A clever artist leaves some things for the viewers to supply when they look at an image. It is a little like when the singer at a concert gets the audience to sing along. You feel like part of the show.

Design Fundamentals

continuance

A grouping of disconnected items by momentum is continuance. Continuance describes a device for directing the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attention when looking at a composition. It is based on the idea that once you start looking in a particular direction you will continue looking in that direction until you see something significant. This feature is built into typography since we are taught to read left to right in our culture. Once you start reading you will continue across a gap to the next words. All kinds of pointing devices are used in design. Many of these devices used are more subtle than a pointing hand or arrow: Eye direction: If the subject of a composition is looking in a particular direction, you will look to see what they are looking at. It is an old trick to look up into the sky and see how many other will look with you. Paths: Rivers, roads, railroad tracks and rows of trees or telephone poles are just a few of the devices that artists have used to lead viewers to particular places in their compositions. Design Fundamentals

Perspective: Lines of perspective, like paths, can be used to direct attention to a focal point in a composition.

Design Fundamentals

similarity

Similarity is concerned with what items look like. There is a limit to the amount of information that the mind can keep track of. When the amount of visual information becomes too great the mind tries to simplify by grouping. Groups are formed in logical ways based what information look like and where the various items are located. Similarity is concerned with what items look like.

Size: The potential for size variation is greater than the differences possible in shape so size is usually a more dominant similarity type. Size has the additional advantage of letting items be B I G ! You learned when you study emphasis that bigger is better when it comes to visibility.

Design Fundamentals

Similarity is a powerful grouping concept and as such can contribute significantly towards achieving unity. The more alike the items are, the more likely they are to form groups. By the same token, if items are dissimilar, they will resist grouping and tend to show more variety. It is important to understand that all of the gestalt concepts can be used both ways -- to group and to ungroup

There are three major similarity types; ways items can look alike or different, the first is:

Similarity

value & color

Value/Color: Another powerful similarity type is value/color. Color makes items easy to identify and hence makes a good grouping tool. Value can work as easily as color, and in fact sometimes it can be a stronger design element.

Design Fundamentals

Shape: Shape, and shape like elements such as direction and texture, can also form groups. When all other things are equal it performs quite well in this function. It is possible to make shapes that are more distinct and therefore more noticeable. Complex shapes may stand out more but there is attractiveness to simpler shapes that makes them more powerful visual elements in most cases. They appeal to our sense of order.

These and other similarity types are used extensively in design to create order and to organize information into specific groups in order to make the material presented more understandable. It is important to understand that it is possible, often necessary, to deliberately make items look different in order to make them stand out or to create more variety in a composition.

Design Fundamentals

proximity Proximity is concerned with where items are placed.Where items are placed in relation to each other is another important gestalt consideration. Proximity relationships will generally dominate over similarity relationships. The strongest control is available when the two are used together.

In the example below the same space that was between words in the example above is used between the letters of close and edge. Notice that they still form two words because of the even larger space between “close” and “edege”.

There are four specific types of proximity relationships that will be studied in this lesson: close edge, touch, overlap and combining.

Close.edge

Close edge: The general concept for proximity states that the closer items are to one another, the more likely they are to be seen as a group. The amount of space involved is relative.

We read words from left to right but also from top to bottom. Close edge relationships can form groups in any direction. What would you order if you saw this sign in a restaurant window?

Close edge

FREE . .

FOOD . .

WATER  .. . .. SOLD

Design Fundamentals

Size is another strong grouping option. Shape is a distant third for forming groups. This kind of grouping is used extensively with printed type. The example below “close and edge” forms two words t because of the larger space between them.

Proximity

Touch: When items get close enough they touch. They still are two different items but they seem to be attached together. This makes for a stronger gestalt than close edge. In the example to the right it shows that the touching groupings are stronger than the close edge groupings. Overlap: The strongest gestalt between two items happens when they overlap. When the two items are the same color they seem to form a new, more complex shape. The new shape seems flat. When the items are different colors the overlap produces the

illusion of a shallow space. The overlapped items form a strong group regardless of color. Notice the grouping hierarchy. The overlapped groups are the strongest. The two color groups are a close second to the all black group. Touching is next then close edge. Shape alone is probably the weakest gestalt in this example. All of the above examples of proximity relationships have used simple shapes that are grouped because of where they are placed in relationship to each other. No additional elements are used.Â

Combine: It is possible to group various items together by using an external element that acts to combine the items regardless of what other gestalt concepts are being used. The underline used in the previous sentence is such a combining device. Notice that it groups the phrase “external element” and sets it off from the rest of the sentence.

It is used with information that the designer wants to call attention to. The quotation marks and brackets in this paragraph serve the same purpose. There are many ways to combine items. Underlining items, putting boxes around them and putting items against a background (such as a color or a picture) are the most common.

A significant characteristic of combining is that it both groups the items used and sets them apart from the rest of the information around them. This “highlighting” (another combining device) is perhaps the most significant aspect of this concept.

In the example to the left all of the proximity and similarity concepts are used. Note how the items combined by the red and black squares are grouped both with each other and with the background squares. These items stand out the most.

Design Fundamentals

alignment

A variation of proximity that is very often used in graphics is alignment. This concept works when visual elements align along edges or vertically through their centers. Alignment is one of those obvious design concepts that hardly seem worth making a big deal about. It is something you see and use every day. There are, however, many more opportunities to use this system for organizing materials than are obvious without a thorough understanding of the principles involved. Items can line up either along their edges or on their centers. Alignment is used extensively to organize all graphic arts. Almost all text uses alignment to organize lines of type. The letters align along their bases and the lines begin (and/or end) along a line. The importance of this can be seen in the last project.

Design Fundamentals

Alignment works best with items that have straight edges, especially rectangles. Rectangles are the most economical shapes to trim pictures into so pictures are most often seen in that format. Text is made of letters of varying shapes that form lines and blocks that act as rectangles. Most formats are also rectangles. There are two major types of alignment: edge and center.

Alignment

edge alignment

Any object with flat edge(s) can be used for edge alignment. Rectangles are especially well suited for this since they have four flat edges to align. Their right angles also give a sense of order to the composition. Note in the example below how it is possible to align one or more edges of a rectangle. When more edges are aligned the rectangle seems to be in a stronger gestalt with the surrounding shapes. Also note how the distance between shapes is a factor in how strong the gestalt seems. The repetition of right angles adds a similarity gestalt to the composition, which increases the sense of unity. It is possible to set up other angles of alignment with shapes other than rectangles. The critical factor is that the objects do align along their edge(s) in a way that is clear. Objects that are on opposite sides of a composition may align but it is unlikely that the alignment will be noticed. Design Fundamentals

An obvious kind of edge alignment takes place around the outside of a group of shapes when they align to provide a simple overall shape (format) -- especially when that shape is a rectangle.

Alignment

center alignment

Any shaped items can be organized using center alignment. Simple shapes work best because it is easier to judge their centers so the alignment is easier to notice. Center alignment will work to some extent on any axis but it works best with a vertical axis .This is because the vertical axis relates best to our sense of balance and symmetry.

Design Fundamentals

Farmingdale State College, Visual Communications: Art and Graphic Design Department All content used in this book is the property of the original copyright holder and protected under all domestic and international copyright laws. Portions ÂŠ Copyright 2000 James T. Saw. Design ÂŠ Copyright 2012 Michael Cuomo. First Printing, December 2012 This book is created fulfillment of an academic assignment and is for educational purposes only. The typefaces used throughout this book are several weights of Rockwell, Rockwell Extra Bold, Minion Pro, Myriad Pro, MS Reference Sans Serif and Helvetica.