Maria Haugen

21st of March 2025

This week, we’ve learned about the Gestalt Principles, and how to use them in our designs. These are principles/laws that shows how we group similar elements, recognize patterns and see complex images as something more simple when we perceive objects. We use these principles so that our content and work is easy to understand and makes it more aesthetically pleasing.

These principles are:

The principle of figure/ground, where we separate a foreground from a background on a flat surface.
The principle of closure, where we see an incomplete shape as a whole, even when parts of the design are missing.
The principle of continuity, where our eyes naturally follow a line or path.
The principle of proximity, where objects that are positioned together tends to be grouped and therefore seen as belonging together.
The principle of similarity, where we group elements that are similar, but not so similar it created tension and frustration for viewers.
The principle of symmetry, where there are identical parts mirroring across one or more axis lines.
The principle of common fate, where objects that are functioning or moving in the same direction appear to be together, and gets perceived as a unit.

With that in mind, we had to choose a theme, and make images using random things that would represent this theme. We had to use at least one principle per image.

I chose the theme “isolation”.

Here, I created an image using marbles. The principle of similarity is used. The marbles are all similar, except one, that is yellow instead of brown.

The principle of figure/ground is present in this photo, where I used flour to create a “bubble” with a head inside.

And lastly, I created a cage using toothpicks, where the principle of symmetry is used.

So there you have it, our first assignment. It was a fun experiment, but I’m more excited to use this with graphic design in the future!