THE PRINCIPLES THAT EXPLAIN HOW WE GROUP, RECOGNIZE, AND SIMPLIFY VISUAL ELEMENTS.
Gestalt is a German word meaning “shape” or “form,” but in design, it’s shorthand for how our minds organize visual information.
The theory took shape in the early 20th century, when German psychologists like Max Wertheimer studied why we see patterns, not just pieces.
Why do dots form lines? Why does negative space create a shape that isn’t really there?
These principles: proximity, similarity, closure, figure-ground, and others, explain how we instinctively find order in visual chaos.
Modern designers still lean on Gestalt theory to guide everything from UI to identity systems.
After all, sometimes it's not what you see, it's how you put it together.
