Gestalt Principle Compositions — Communication Design Fundamentals
Fall 2017
Project Description
This was a project for the Communication Design Fundamentals course at Carnegie Mellon. The task was to apply Gestalt principles to create arrangements of solid black squares that conveyed certain words: comfort, order, playfulness, tension, and congestion.
Process
COMFORT
Comfort was the hardest word to come up with a visual representation for. Even if I considered a certain arrangement “comfortable”, another person might find it uncomfortable. I played around with simple arrangements of a few squares, since I knew for sure that too many squares would be uncomfortable. However, these seemed trivial, not really conveying a sense of comfort. Finally, I decided to iterate on the idea of fitting a puzzle piece back into its place, like the feeling of going back home. I started out with a rudimentary arrangement of blocks that appeared clunky. Next. I tried using only 3 squares to make it look cleaner. The final result is most comforting to me, as it depicts a square going back to its place to complete a larger square.
ORDER
Order seemed deceptively simple to convey. My initial ideas revolved around the idea of stacking squares that gradually grew in size. Some of these arrangements were stacked immediately on top of each other, and didn’t look clean. I decided to iterate on the idea of squares on a diagonal line across the thumbnail, increasing in size. The final iteration had the squares precisely evenly spaced across the thumbnail, to further depict order. I also decided to flip the diagonal, because I realized that having the focal point on the smallest square first would better convey order, from smallest to largest.
PLAYFULNESS
My initial idea for playfulness was to include a bunch of squares with varying sizes and positioned at varying angles. This would communicate an idea of playful movement or diversity. I decided to challenge myself to take a simpler approach and use fewer squares, Similar to my approach with the comfort piece involving a square going back to its place, my approach with playfulness was to show a square moving away from its place, like a playful child that does not want to stay in one position with its siblings. The first iteration kind of conveyed tension, because the square seemed like it would fall off. For the final iteration, I changed the angle of the deviating square and had it lean on two other squares, like a playful, needy child.
TENSION
When I think of tension, what comes to mind is intense pushing on small area of contact. I tried to relate this idea into my initial sketches, such as with several large blocks with smaller blocks wedged tightly in between. Another idea was to depict large blocks pushing down or on either side of very small blocks, to convey the smaller blocks feeling tension. The final idea was having two separate shapes collide with each other in the center. Ultimately, I decided to iterate on this idea because I could experiment with angles, scale, and stacking. In the first digital iteration, the shapes were overlapping in their intersection area and were not symmetrical. Based on my instructor’s feedback, I decided to arrange the two different shape formations in the center where they would be barely colliding. This conveyed tension much better than the overlapping arrangement. I also played around with angles and positioning to make the shapes appear symmetrical.
CONGESTION
My primary idea for congestion was to depict many small squares trying to get through a very narrow opening. My five sketches show this concept of many squares attempting to travel through a small, cramped space created by larger squares. I decided to iterate on the idea of tiny squares trying to travel through a uniform block system, but building up in the corners. I felt that this conveyed congestion the best, since the black square block system already gave the impression of congestion. With the tiny black squares embedded inside the block system, another layer of congestion was created. For the final iteration, I evenly spaced the squares and played around with the positioning of the small squares to achieve the optimal cramped feeling.
Final Thoughts
For each word, I tried to incorporate a uniformly-sized square in some way. For playfulness and congestion, the square formed a grid system. For tension, I turned the square into different shapes at conflict with each other. The process of brainstorming , sketching, and choosing which ideas to pursue really opened my eyes to how logos and other designs are developed. I enjoyed the freedom to manipulate squares to create different formations while being constrained by the black squares. I also developed a better sense of Gestalt principles and how to apply those to design.
