Gestalts Theory and Design Principles

Gestalt is a psychology term keyed by German psychologists in the 1920s, and means 'unified whole'. It refers to theories of visual perception and tries to explain how people organise visual images into groups when certain principles are applied.

Similarity
This is where we group items in terms of their similar characteristics, and this can be in terms of colour, shape, texture, size etc. We can bring attention to an object in a frame if we make it dissimilar or anomalous, as it doesn't stick to the standard codes and conventions of the other items.

Continuation
Continuation refers to how the eye is made to follow a direct linear line or route.

Closure
Everyone looks for closure in a picture, and we tend not to be satisfied if this does not happen. As long as there is a partial amount of detail, we will complete the image to something that immediately makes sense to us. For example, if the outline of a circle was not connected, our brains would naturally complete the circle.

Proximity
Proximity refers to how shapes are organised. Objects close together are associated with each other as being in the same group or category. Other groups that are further away tend not to be associated with them and seen as a different group.

Figure and Ground
The eye tends to differentiate between the foreground and background. The figure is that in the foreground like a silhouette, tree, bird etc and the background or surrounding area is known as ground. For example, when reading text, the human immediately assumes that the text is on top of the white; the text being the figure and the white being the ground. Complex figure/ground images can be created for a very interesting visual effect.

http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/gestaltprinciples/gestaltprinc.htm
http://www.users.totalise.co.uk/~kbroom/Lectures/gestalt.htm
http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/gestaltprinciples/gestalt.pdf