What Is the Gestalt Principle of Perception?

Gestalt is a psychological term. Gestalt has two meanings: one refers to the general attributes of things, that is, form; one refers to the individual entities of things, that is, the separated whole, and form is only one of its attributes. That is, "if there is an empirical phenomenon, each of its components is implicated in other components; and each component has its characteristics, that is, because it has a relationship with other parts, this phenomenon is called Gestalt "In short, Gestalt is not an isolated phenomenon, but a complete phenomenon related to the whole body. The complete phenomenon has its own complete characteristics. It cannot be split into simple elements, and its characteristics are not contained in any element. ^[1]

As

Gestalt learning theory is a pioneer of modern cognitive learning theory. At the beginning of this century, German psychologist M. Wetheimer (1880 ~ 1943),

Gestalt's theory is not without criticism. In fact, this criticism starts from

Application of Gestalt principle in composition:

1 Gestalt 1: Remove

Deletion is to exclude unimportant parts from the composition image, and only keep those absolutely necessary parts to achieve visual simplification.

In the actual design creation process, you must pay attention to whether any extras are added to the design that conflict with your expected expression. If there are, you should exclude them to improve the visual expression of your design. By studying the work of some design masters, we noticed that any effective and appealing visual expression does not require too many complex images. Many classic design works are very concise in visual performance.

2 Gestalt 2: Closer

When each visual unit is next to each other and is very close to each other, the term "close" can be used to describe this state, and this state is usually also regarded as a classification. The various methods of visual categorization by proximity are straightforward and easy to implement. Designers can use the close approach to create the perfect gestalt as needed. This is because close relationships are generated by closeness, and it is equally easy to use close relationships to classify a small number of identical visual units or a large number of different visual units.

For example, in print layout design, in order to distinguish different contents, a close relationship method is often used to visually classify. The simplest example: when dealing with pictures of different content and related explanatory text, as long as the corresponding text paragraph of each picture is close to it, maintain a certain distance between this different combination of graphics and text, no need to guide the symbol , The reader will not mistake the relationship between each picture and text paragraph. In the layout of newspapers and magazines, the relationship between letters and letters, words and words, lines and lines is also used, so that the overall layout is divided into a number of close columns, which become a number of related visual combinations.

3 Gestalt 3: Combine

In composition, combining means that the individual visual units are completely united and cannot be separated. This can make the original irrelevant visual images naturally associated, such as a commonly used design method-isomorphism: combining two or more different visual images, and the visual expression naturally comes from one Visual semantics extends to another visual semantics.

4 Gestalt 4: Contact

Contact means that the individual visual units are in close proximity so that they stick to each other. In this way, a larger, unified whole is formed visually. The contact form may lose its original individuality and become blurred. Just like the unit shapes of different shapes that are in contact with each other in the design of the pattern, they are so similar in visual perception and completely dissolved into one.

5 Gestalt 5: Coincidence

Coincidence is a special form of union. If all visual units are different in terms of hue or texture, then it is easier to distinguish the original visual units that have been connected; on the contrary, if all visual units are the same in terms of hue or texture, then , The original outline of each visual unit will disappear, thus forming a single overlapping shape. Overlap can create an unquestionable sense of unity and order. When superimposing different visual images, if we see that the overall shape of these visual images has a common, unified outline, then this superposition is successful.

6 Gestalt 6: Style and Texture

Style and texture are made up of a large number of repeating units. The main difference between the two is the size or scale of the visual unit, but otherwise they are basically the same. A style is a visually enlarged texture, while a texture is a visually reduced style. So, without the need for a clear distinction, we can explain both style and texture,

A visual gestalt that perceives style or texture is always based on the size and number of visual units. But on certain occasions, other factors may play a role. For example, the total number of visual units in a Gestalt can affect its appearance. This phenomenon may occur when the number is so large that the individual visual units cannot be clearly seen. For example, the woods not far away through the window are large enough to constitute a style; however, if you look down on an entire forest on an airplane, I am afraid you can only look at it as a texture.

There is no strict distinction between style and texture. When the size and number of visual units change to a certain range of values, this feature can make the style look like a texture, and it can also make the texture appear as a style. Or, create a texture within a style, so that the style and texture coexist simultaneously.

7 Gestalt 7: Closed

There is a common visual classification method based on a human gestalt mentality: the local image is perceived as a whole image. This special phenomenon of perception is called closure.

Of course, our ability to recognize the whole from the part of an image is based on the impression that we have in our minds an understanding of the relationship between the whole and the part of the image. That is to say, if we don't recognize an image even in its entirety, we can be sure that we will not recognize it when it lacks many parts. If there are too many missing parts in an image, the identifiable details are not enough to converge into an easy to recognize overall image. And if the parts of an image are too far away, there may be too many parts that need to be added perceptually. In these cases, human habitual perception will treat each part completely as its own unit as a separate unit ^[2]