Gestalt 1 - We Four Kings

This design is made up of various shapes on a black backdrop. Yet we see chess pieces because of closure. Take a closer look at a chess piece and you will find that none of its parts are actually connected. The base is separate and so is the crown. However, our mind fills in the missing information and we perceive all the parts as one piece.

We actually see four kings pictured here. Why? Because of proximity. Some of the blue shapes are closer together than others. We see four distinct clusters of shapes: four groups. And each group is perceived as a unit, or rather, a chess piece.

One of these things is not like the other. How about the second from the right? He does not quite fit in with the other kings. The three kings are mentally grouped together because of similarity; they share the same characteristics. We do not spend long examining them because our eye is automatically drawn to the misfit king.

I also utilized figure/ground in this design. We perceive four figures on a black ground (background). I ask myself how our minds organize these objects so quickly. I believe that the mind is aided by the other principles mentioned above and thus we are quickly able to interpret the design.

Gestalt in the real world

I took this photo of the recycling logo in the Wilk. Our eye follows the arrows around (continuation) and we see a triangle which three points have been used many times to signify the three Rs of recycling - reduce, reuse, recycle.

There is also an element of closure. We perceive the white space that cuts through each arrow as the arrow folding over on itself when in reality there is nothing there.