in this video I'll talk about the widest reach and collection of theories explaining how we create and understand visual relationships the laws of Gestalt even though Gestalt is part of this design principle series it is much more than a principle Gestalt is a collection of laws explains how we as people perceive and interpret groups of visual elements these lives are composed of many different visual concepts some of which you'll recognize from our previous videos ultimately Gestalt gives us a comprehensive approach to visual communication now as you see these words move into screen please note that each of them has a meaning that we can appreciate independently of the others but as you put the words together you create a composition which has the potential to create a much greater impact than just a collection of individual words no matter how meaningful an individual word or visual element its primary goal must be to add meaning and impact to the message as a whole and that's the essence of Gestalt understanding that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts so where did the laws of Gestalt come from they were originated and developed in the early of 20th century by three German theorists max Wertheimer Wolfgang köhler and Kurt Kafka Gestalt was developed initially as a psychological concept Gestalt psychologists are interested in how people perceive the world among so much ongoing change how do people make sense of so much visual stimulation now if they felt that way about the world in the earlier 20th century imagine how they'd feel today and that is why the ideas of Gestalt are critical to us as visual communicators our job is to reach people with a message even in the midst of all the visual stimulation which constantly surrounds them the concepts of Gestalt will help you understand how people perceive quantify and act upon lots of information which in turn will inform your approach to visual communication and finally the word Gestalt means essence or shape of an entity's complete form I just thought I should stick that in here this video will show you twelve of these laws there are more and I encourage you to do some research and learn more about these twelve theories plus those not covered here because the more you understand about how people see the world the more effectively you will be able to reach them so here are 12 of the laws of Gestalt let's start with the law of figure-ground elements are perceived as either figure or ground a figure being an object or element of focus the ground is what the figure sits on we talked about this when we were talking about positive and negative so I won't belabor the point again here simply whatever is in front is the figure and whatever you perceive is being behind is the ground or the background keep in mind that people's perception of figure and ground can be different so it's your job to direct them to see the relationships as you define them the next law the law of area is closely related to the law of figure and ground this law states that the smaller of two overlapping shapes is perceived as the figure and the larger as the ground so if you look at this arrangement with a large square and a small square most of you are going to perceive the small square is sitting on top of the big square however a few of you may see the small square as being a hole in the big square what next is the law of similarity you'll see as we work through these laws of Gestalt that a lot of them are about how we simplify our understanding of elements by visually combining them into groups the law of similarity tells us that elements which are similar are perceived to be more related than elements which are dissimilar so in this example chances are you're going to see four groups of squares and three groups of sir this by virtue of the fact that the squares are very similar to each other and the same is true for the circles our brain automatically turns those into a group which you see first before you start trying to understand the individual elements that's our brain simplifying our perception to help us make sense of the complicated world around us yes D which is good because I've always found circles and squares confusing the law of proximity says that elements that are close to one another are perceived to be more related than elements which are further apart another way of our brain grouping objects just by simply saying well if they're close together then they must be a group when you look at this arrangement of elements chances are that you're going to see three groups a column of black circles and a column of orange circles on the left then in the middle and on the right but watch what happens as we move the columns around all of a sudden the relationships change based on which columns are closer to other columns also notice the color has less impact on how we perceive groups than proximity the law of continuity elements arranged on a line or a curve are perceived to be more related than elements not on a line or a curve so continuity means that people group elements together if those elements follow a common directional path in this case you're most likely seing two groups one group that's a vertical column right down the middle and another group of circles that is on a curvilinear path the law of common region explains that elements are perceived as a group if they are within the same closed region in this arrangement you're most likely seeing five groups five evenly spaced columns of circles but watch what happens when we bring in some shapes to contain those columns all of a sudden those five groups have become - by virtue of the columns being contained within the rectangles law of unity elements that have a visual connectedness are perceived to be more related than elements with no visual action if you look at these four circles it's likely that you're going to combine them into two groups a group of black circles and a group of orange but watch what happens when we add these linear shapes between the black and the orange circles all of a sudden our understanding of the relationship of these elements is different now our brain sees two different groups each with a black circle a black line and an orange circle the directional shape between the black and orange circles connects or unifies those elements together we have a new understanding of how the elements relate to each other the law of closure states that elements are perceived as a group if they seem to complete an entity we tend to look for a single recognizable object or pattern even if there are gaps in the information yet again this is about our brain taking something complicated and converting it to its simplest form I'm betting that you're seeing two triangles and three circles here I know I am but what's interesting to note is that there are neither circles nor triangles in this arrangement our brain is taking what information it has and trying to connect the dots so to speak it's turning the shapes into a much simpler collection of objects that is easier to understand the law of prognosis people will perceive ambiguous or complex images as the simplest form possible so here's our brain at work again saying how can I take this complicated collection of shapes and turn them into something that's simple and easy to digest Prag nons is a german word that simply translated means good form what it means here specifically is that when you look at this image you are most likely seeing seven overlapping circles when in reality this shape is created from a whole bunch of more complex shapes our brain just loves simple the law of symmetry says that when we perceive elements we tend to see them as symmetrical shapes that form around their center so another way we create groups or relationships is by trying to make things symmetrical when you look at these brackets chances are you're seeing three groups a left bracket and a right bracket on the left in the middle and then on the right which is interesting because in this case symmetry Trump's proximity that's a problem to me so even though these two sets of brackets are much closer to each other most of you are going to be relating to the full set of brackets because they have symmetry formed around a central point the law of focal point a point of interest emphasis or difference that will capture and hold the viewers attention whether you know it or not we talked a lot about focal points in our last video on contrast focal points are about creating a point of entry into an arrangement it's the front door of the layout so to speak so by forcing the viewer to look at one particular element they are pulled into the layout and then encouraged to look at the other elements around it and if you've done your job as a designer the viewer is going to be looking at these elements in a very particular order and nice bite-sized pieces of information so it's easy for them to digest and then finally the law of common fate which tells us that elements which move in the same direction are perceived as being more related than elements that are stationary or moving in a different direction this ideal will make a lot more sense if you just see it this law adds the additional elements of time and movement most people will see these as two distinct groups of balls connected by their common direction of movement we've covered a lot of ground in these principles of design videos and it's probably a little overwhelming as these concepts are most likely new to you so do you need to have all these concepts ideas rules platitudes and laws memorized or you can start creating concepts and layouts no but what's nice is that you now have a starting point and a language to use and you now know that it's your responsibility as a visual communicator to control everything about how the audience receives your message that you give them the information and prioritised easy-to-understand pieces I believe the principles we've covered in these videos will help you to that end now get to work communicate