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Gestalt principles are principles of human  perception that describe how we group similar  
elements, recognize patterns and simplify  complex images when we perceive objects.  
- So, Gestalt principles — sometimes called  Gestalt laws — are simply a way of thinking through  
Gestalt psychology — 'Gestalt' just meaning 'form', is how we're making sense of a visual field.
These are ways of parsing out what things mean within a visual space.
Gestalt relies first and foremost on the understanding of a visual field and the ability to create

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what are called *figure/ground relationships. So, figure/ground relationships are sometimes
called 'positive space' and 'negative space'. So, I'm going to talk about them as figure/ground,
because when we look at something like this visual field of rectangles,
it all looks the same — that is right now our ground.
But the first rule of figure/ground relationships is that discontinuity creates figure.
So, by changing one thing here, by creating that discontinuity, that draws our attention,

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that becomes the thing in which we are focusing on, and that is really essential,
because this can manifest through the Law of Similarity,
by which visual similarities are read as being more related.
And we can do this through color; we can do this through shape; we can do this through size.
So, we read these things as being more of a group.
Proximity works in a similar way wherein the actual visual or physical proximity of things
relative to each other tells us that these are also read as a group.

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There's the Law of Continuation, by which our eye wants to follow a particular line.
And so, when we read this visual, we don't read it as two lines which have met in the middle
and made a hard turn. We read this as two lines flowing over each other,
and that's because of continuation.
And all of these things — Gestalt principles —  influence hierarchy,
informational grouping and readability, and they become essential for
understanding both concept and content.