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Gestalt theory

What is the Gestalt theory?


  • This theory attempts to describe how people tend to organize visual elements into groups or unified wholes when certain principles are applied.

  • It was established in the 1920s.

  • The theory mentions that the whole picture carried a different and altogether greater meaning than its individual components.

  • The main founders of the theory were phychologists Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ernst Mach, Christian von Ehrenfels, Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, and Kurt Koffka.

  • There are several Gestalt Principles which explains how we visually perceive objects.



Works Cited

Bradley, Steven. Design Principles: Visual Perception and Principles of Gestalt. 28 March, 2014. Internet. 6 August, 2015. <http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/03/design-principles-visual-perception-and-the-principles-of-gestalt/>.

Gestalt Theory of Visual Perception. 2015. Internet. 6 August, 2015. <http://www.users.totalise.co.uk/~kbroom/Lectures/gestalt.htm>.

The Gestalt Principles. 2015. Internet. 6 August, 2015. <http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/gestaltprinciples/gestaltprinc.htm>.

Todorovic, Dejan. Gestalt principles. 2008. Internet. 6 August, 2015. <http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Gestalt_principles>.

Tuck, Michael. Gestalt Principles Applied in Design. 17 August, 2010. Internet. 6 August, 2015. <http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/gestalt-principles-applied-in-design/>.

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