Study Task 2 - Figure/Ground Principles

• The Gestalt. “the whole is other than the sum of the parts” Kurt Koffka

gestalt

/ɡəˈʃtɑːlt,ɡəˈʃtalt/

nounPSYCHOLOGY

noun: gestalt; plural noun: gestalts

1 an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.

• Gestalt can be shape or form
• Gestalt psychology was founded by Max Wertheimer after his observation that we perceive motion when there is nothing more than a rapid sequence of individual sensory events.
• Key features:
  Emergence —> Whole is identified before the parts.
  Reification —> Our mind fills the gaps.
  Multi stability —> The mind seeks to avoid uncertainty it tries to make order of things and avoid not understanding. Invariance —> We’re good at recognising similarities and differences.
• When we see a complex form our ur mind starts to break it down and we simplify it to actual shapes such as seeing that it's made up of a circle, rectangle and shape. Law of Pragnanz. 
• Law of closure. Instead of seeing random shapes we fill in the the missing information to form the complete figure.
• Symmetry and order is something our mind looks for. e.g { } { } { } we see three sets of brackets not six.
• We see things closer together as being related. Spaced out images are grouped in our heads instead of having no relation to each other
• Continuation. Elements arranged on a line or curve are perceived as more related than elements that aren’t. 
• Uniform connectedness. Elements with visual connections are perceived as more related.
• Focal point. When there is something different among uniformity, we are immediately drawn to it.
• Reversible figure/ground relationship. If you see white faces the white is the figure and the black is the ground and vice versa if you see the vase. 
  
• Ambiguous - the distribution of positive and negative makes it hard to distinguish which is figure and which is ground.
• Jan Tschichold “White  space is to be regarded as an active element not a passive background” 
• Space can establish contrast, emphasis and hierarchy e.g Arminn Hoffmann (Swiss design aesthetic)
• Space can generate drama and tension. Josef Müller-Brockmann.
• Space can provide visual rest. The poster by Hoffmann is mostly negative space and our eyes can settle in the space away from all the information.