there's one graphic design theory that i use on pretty much all of my designs and that's because
it's just totally awesome these advertising posters by adidas make use of the theory this
ui layout makes use of the theory and i hope that you want to make use of it too because it really
is truly so effective on graphic designs now skillshare is an online learning community where
you can pick up new skills and implement them in impacting ways to learn how you can get a one
month free trial to skillshare stick around to the end of today's video firstly in simple terms what
exactly is the gestalt theory it suggests that the brain does all kinds of weird and wonderful things
when presented with a complex group of images or assets it essentially attempts to organize
them on a subconscious level okay cool but i hear you you're wondering what does that really mean
and why is it so important to us designers we're going to look at the six different parts of the
gestalt theory but it's important to remember that each part is different but they do form themselves
around a single base theory that the human brain subconsciously functions in a very specific way
the first part of the gestalt theory we're going to look at is continuation take a look
at this adidas poster with the basketball player notice how the basketball frame arches over to
the player itself the eye naturally follows this path but then here's an american football example
and you can see the powder explosion has streaks pointing towards the adidas logo
drawing the eye to that location alidas made an entire series of posters exploring and exploiting
this part of the gestalt theory it also can be seen in logo design an example here from
amazon that leads your eye from a to z now if you want to control where your audience looks next
then consider this area of gestalt theory you might ask yourself why is this important at all
well if you look back at the adidas posters we can tell the designer actually thought beforehand how
the viewer was going to interact with the design itself he or she wanted the viewer to travel from
the american football player head over towards the tagline and then hopefully finish on the brand
logo itself so that they leave the design with the brand firmly in mind next is figure and ground but
also closure is very similar so i'm going to put them together essentially this is the way your
brain subconsciously processes negative space it's why when you see the nbc logo you see the body of
a peacock and not just some random white space or how people can notice an arrow in the fedex logo
this is the brain making sense of a collection of design elements and a clever designer can hack
the brain from the viewpoint of figure and ground that is if they want to communicate something on
their design that uses negative space it's a great way to add in kind of secret messages or hidden
meanings into your designs and it's something that when the viewer actually sees it in a design they
kind of feel accomplished and intelligent and also they think the design itself is clever when they
do find that kind of hidden meaning again this is on a completely subconscious level thirdly
we have symmetry and order and before you think that this is something you already understand you
might want to think again why is it important to consider symmetry and order on your design why is
that even a thing well gestalt principle says that a design composition should not provide a sense of
disorder or imbalance because then the viewer will waste time trying to locate the missing element
or fix the problem as opposed to actually focusing on the message or the instruction
a graphic design needs to deliver a message and if the viewer is there trying to solve a subconscious
problem then your design has a problem order can be as simple as making use of balance symmetrical
or asymmetrical on this website ui we have the main eye catching element on the left and then
the info on the right but also the content on the right is balanced and split into different groups
gestalt says a design should have good clear form so your message doesn't make the viewer confused
unless that is what you're trying to do anyway but let's keep moving on to something else that helped
my designs become ultra organized and ultra effective take a look at this app ui layout
notice how in a large blue square on the left we have three similar size squares of the same
color then below that we have profile pictures of the same size circles and we can see other
examples of this on the right this is the gestalt principle of similarity when you mix objects with
a high degrees of similarity to each other the brain then devotes time and energy to creating
a link between the similar objects so then it can understand their relationship with each other in
good starts similar elements are visually grouped regardless of their proximity to each other they
can be grouped by color shape or size you will begin to notice this everywhere you look as you
can see on this website design with the red icons below use this principle when you want the viewer
to link objects together with a relationship even though they are spread out across your design
and as you might have noticed by now the gestalt theory is a collection of theories and principles
unified into one single theory but it's really important to remember also that
these theories have a core principle and that is the human brain subconsciously interprets visual
stimuli in a very specific way that designers can make use of something that you might know about
that gestalt theory talks about is proximity again this goes back to how our brains process
visual stimuli if you want to take your designs to the next level then think about
how your audience's minds actually interact with your work and proximity says that objects that
are grouped together in close proximity share the same relationship despite their appearance
the best example of this can be seen in ui layouts this website has a group on the left
with the title body text and the call-to-action button below that a separate group and then on the
right another separate group the navigation bar at the very top is also its own group now you want
to place objects in close proximity that share relationships together the viewer reads the body
text and then possibly they want to learn more so they see the button just below that they can click
as textbook gets stopped hacking your brain and as you can see gestalt theory talks about
various different design principles but they're encompassed with the idea that the human brain
subconsciously does certain things and designers can take advantage of those certain things
now you might know that i'm really a big fan of nice juicy motion graphics
and also you might know that i'm a very busy person with a very tight schedule but i've
actually been using a sponsor of today's video skillshare to improve my motion graphics skills
and to kick off 2022 i decided to take a class on kinetic typography in adobe after effects by phil
edener now you might ask why did i decide to go with motion graphics well that's simply because
i do think that the future of design or graphic design in general is heavily going to be animated
so i kind of want to pick up those skills moving into the future with skillshare it's actually
possible to take each individual lesson in that class whenever you have free time
your progress is saved as you move through each individual lesson and also there are
some resources in most of the classes to make use of there are so many different subjects to
make use of in skillshare and we have things like graphic design animation ui ux design photography
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want to take a look at this category here and also you can see that each category is divided
up into subcategories as well so the first 1000 people who use the link down below or the code
satori graphics will get a free one-month trial to skillshare so click the link down below and
start your journey today and we did actually talk about negative space in today's video and
it's something very important to graphic designs but if you want to learn more about negative space
just click a video on screen and until next time design your future today peace
you