"Principles to Design By" (Guest article written by Jason Allen)

Before I was learning how to code, I was learning how to delve a little bit into the graphic design world. As I dove into those lessons, some of the first things I learned was about the Gestalt Principles. Let’s see what these principles are all about!

Gestalt comes from German psychologists and it simply means the “unified whole.” These are all principles that when you use them, they make a piece you are working on appear as one singular unit. There are 5 Gestalt Principles I want to go over. They include Closure, Continuation, Figure/Ground, Similarity, and Proximity. Let’s see how these work!

Closure: This just simply means that when we see a shape that’s not fully closed off, or “complete” our minds “complete” that shape. Take for instance you draw almost a complete circle, but it is not closed off completely. What our mind tells us is that “Ok yeah, that is supposed to be a circle.” It fills in the gaps if you will.

Continuation: This principle is trying to convey the idea that our eyes will follow a path through a piece. Sometimes it’s implied lines, sometimes it’s shapes that point to something, whatever it is, it leads our eyes. It can lead our eyes through a piece or it can lead our eyes to another piece, thus leading our eyes on a continuous path.

Figure/Ground: Simply put, this is just a relationship between figures or objects, and ground, which is the background. The cool thing with this principle, though, is often times with this relationship, you see images in the negative space of whatever the background is. Sometimes the figure and ground combine to form a known object or shape, but on their own, are just abstract shapes. Often times common silhouettes are seen in figure/ground relationships. The optical illusions you can create with this principle are pretty cool!

Similarity: This happens when shapes of similar size, color, or appearance are together in a piece. The similar shapes are seen together as one unit. If they weren’t similar shapes, then it would be more abstract. But since we are trying to make multiple elements appear as a single unit, similar shapes will help achieve this easier. Similar shapes often form patterns that can create unity throughout a piece.

Proximity: This happens when multiple, often times smaller, elements from a piece are put right next to each other, or in other words, within close proximity. When they are put close together, they are perceived as a group, as opposed to random, singular objects. Often times when a bunch of the same elements are put right next to each other, they can start making a larger, new image, not seen before. This starts tying in a little Figure/Ground, but it’s still the same idea that it stemmed from the proximity of those objects.

Well, that’s five Gestalt Principles. This should give you a better idea on how to get a good start on learning graphic design elements. Gestalt Principles are a great tool to help you make logos, and we all know how important a logo is to a company. Logos are typically at the top of a webpage, as part of the navigation, so that’s where it ties into my line of work. And if you are more interested in my work, check out my blog!