Gestaltism provide us a framework/set of laws for explaining how human perception works.

Its about how humans sees/perceives world around us and extract patterns, derive conclusions from it.

In 1920s, a group of German psychologists developed theories around how people perceive the world around them and it’s called Gestalt principles. They believed that humans tend to perceive objects as a whole rather than focusing on the gaps that object may contain.

It helps in identifying from the visual below

  • Signal

It’s the information we want to communicate to viewers

  • Noise

It’s the clutter

Below are the Gestalt principles

  • Law of Proximity
  • Law of Similarity
  • Law of Enclosure
  • Law of Closure
  • Law of Continuity
  • Law of Connection
  • Law of Focal point
  • Law of Figure and Ground
  • Law of Symmetry
  • Law of Common Fate

Law of Proximity:

            Objects that are placed close to one another are perceived as a group and those are further apart are seen as unrelated or less related.

In the below image, A is perceived as single group and B is perceived as three different groups.

Law of Similarity:

            Objects with similar characteristics – similar colors, shapes, sizes, orientation etc are perceived as a group.

In the below image,

A – Shapes circle and triangle are perceived as a group

B – Circle with different colors are perceived as a group

Law of Enclosure:

            Any visual form of enclosure will be perceived as a group.

In the below image, borders highlighted in yellow will be perceived as a group.

Law of Closure:

            Any visual form with open structure considered as closed, complete when it is reasonably to do so.

In the below image, A will be perceived as rectangle and B as circle irrespective of open structure.

Law of Continuity:

            Any visual form which are aligned with one another or appear to form a continuation of one another are perceived as together.  Human eyes will instinctively group things that are aligned with each other.

In the below image, it will be perceived as one single line.

Law of Connection:

            Any visual form that are connected in some way such as by a line, perceived as part of same group.

In the below image, even though its close to one other, its connected by a line and it will be perceived as separate group.

  In this image, line connecting dots are perceived as a group

Law of Focal Point:

            Any visual form that stands out visually will be given higher attention.

In the below image, circle with yellow highlighted gets higher attention

Law of Figure and Ground:

            This law states that a human eye instinctively recognizes if the elements are in the foreground or background. Viewers know that foreground is more important than the background.

Human eye differentiate foreground and background through blurriness, contrast, size and separation.

In the below image, one with the right mark highlights that the foreground is more important.

Law of Symmetry:

            This law states that elements that symmetrical to each other are perceived as a unified group.

In the below image,  its perceived as a group as its symmetrical to each other

Law of Common Fate:

            This law states that elements that move in the same direction are more likely to be considered to belong together than those that move in the opposite directions or don’t move at all.

In the below image, it will be perceived as first row are perceived as one group as they move in the same direction and second row are perceived as one group as they move in the same direction.

Hope this article will be helpful for you.