Third Tutorial

I had a good idea in my mind of how I wanted to go about my essay, at this point I had collected a large body of research and divided it into each subsection, highlighting and picking out specific quotes. This crit was really helpful in terms of gibing me the go ahead to begin writing my main body of the dissertation. 

Other points to consider:

- How can my theory and practice be related?

- Consider what examples will be analysed and why?

Survey Results

I think it is essential at this point to do a survey to get a grasp of how informed my audience are.

Who is my audience?

My audience is predominantly graphic designers of any age. I will be sending a link to this survey to some professional designers whose feedback I think would be beneficial, I will post it around to the course, all levels if possible, and potentially onto some design forums if I feel this is appropriate at the time.

What do I need to find out?

I would like to find out whether designers have heard about the Gestalt Principles and whether they think they are important to consider when practicing design. 

How will I inform?

For those who are unaware of what the Gestalt Principles are I will attach the handout I created a while ago to the top of the survey as a brief overview of the seven key principles I will be referring to. This will also be a test as to whether my handout is successful in its' explanation. 

What questions:

1. Are you aware of what the Gestalt principles are?

2. Do you think that all designers should be using them as a tool?

3. This will be an open question where I can get some qualitative feedback. In the box below please describe one piece of design that reflects one of the principles and if possible add a link to it.

Hypothesis:

The outcome I would generally expect is to reach around fifty designers and get some new and useful feedback. I want to see how others perceive the principles and if they are clear initially or whether deeper research is needed before fully understanding them. 

The results of my survey were fairly surprising in terms of how many examples I was successfully provided by respondents. 

My first question showed that 53% of people taking the survey said they had not heard of the Gestalt principles before, this is unsurprising to me and if anything I potentially expected a slightly higher percentage than this. This is a concern that I will focus on, why people aren't aware of these principles and what can be done to change this. 

My second question shows that 69% of people taking the survey said that they believe graphic designers should be using these principles as a guideline. 

My third question was open and gave me a really wide variety of feedback (see below) it was clear as I was collecting all the results that closure was the principle most people had referred to within the image they had sent in. This could be due to this being one of the easiest principles to understand or possible it being one of the more common ones that designers use. 

Based on my Level 5 primary research investigation I would have expected to see 'figure and ground' and 'symmetry' as the top two most popular again. However figure and ground was one of the lowest image counts. Closure and symmetry were the two highest scoring, reinforcing the use of symmetry being popular amongst designs and designers. 

What was also interesting to me was the dominant focus on logos, I didn't give a specificity to the type of design I wanted to see but it seemed people turned straight to logos for their chosen example. I think the principles are much easier to see and identify within logos and this is the reason why. 

Below is the collection of logos that was received from the respondents and the categories to which they fall under. 

Practical Research and Gestalt Handout

In order for people to understand the Gestalt principles I felt it was necessary to create a quick overview of the seven that I will be concentrating on, this will prove useful during any primary research when using the audience to get responses. 

Methodology Research

Universal Methods of Design: 100 Ways to Research Complex Problems, Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions

Using the above stated book I have looked through a variety of methodologies that would be relevant to the way I need to collect primary information for my practical outcome.

Project Proposal

Project Proposal

Practical Element 1: Research investigation

This part of my practical will be an in depth research investigation into the use of the Gestalt principles within logo design ranging from the earlier period of 1930 to 2015. This will be completed alongside the dissertation writing so that it can give reliable results that will be analysed within it as part of the content. It will be presented in a clear and precise way that will show the chronological order of the logos, and finally presenting the results at the end.

Practical Element 2: A1 typography set

This will be the main body of the practical and will be a direct reflection of what my dissertation has allowed research in to. There will be a minimum of three grids and the content will be taken directly from the dissertation, these will be at A1 size so as to include all of the writing. Each grid will have an assigned principle and this is how the layout will be designed with this in mine.

Practical Element 3: Gestalt principles guide

For the final part of the practical element, a guide to the Gestalt principles will be designed and created. Each principle will be presented and examples given, its key aim is to communicate how these principles can be beneficial to all designers and how they are applied in certain situations.

Practical Brief

The brief is simple and to the point, it clearly states what work should be produced on what basis and the product of this brief should demonstrate the research undertaken and the results found for this module. 

Practical Ideas

These initial several ideas each have potential to take me down different ways in which I can explore my research in a visual way. They concentrate on how to either inform of the principles or integrate them within design. At this point the ideas that stand out the most are a 'set of posters showing Gestalt', designing a 'how to guide' and branding Gestalt itself. These three would be the strongest in terms of conveying the message and a clear dispaly of the principles in practice.

Second Tutorial

This crit was able to give me more specific deadlines to work to, I had set myself deadlines on my own schedule but it was good to have a second opinion on how quickly I should be working. We discussed my practical and came up with the idea that drawing up a table of comparisons could benefit my research really well. This table would take designs from many different years and compile them all together for comparison to find out if any trends were apparent involving the Gestalt Principles from the 20th century to the 21st century.

Other points to consider: 

- How big should the chart be?

- From what time period should it start?

- Consider the principles in grids, layouts and formats.

Reading List

These are the books I have decided will be the best to start with to contribute to my research, my process will begin with reading each one and bookmarking the relevant pages before photocopying and organising into my file.

Chapter and Paragraph Content Development

I am re thinking my plan and I have come up with this structure, this allows me to concentrate my research specifically into each chapter and subsection making sure I can cover all points and areas. I will begin in paragraph 1 (Chapter 1) with an overview of visual perception and an in-depth review and comparison of the three key theorists, Gestalt, Gregory and Gibson. This will introduce the main topic and people so the following parts of the essay make sense. In Para 2 (Chapter 2) this is where I will look into the beginning of Gestalt being introduced into design, I will pinpoint key times where Gestalt has been at the forefront of design and choose specific designs to analyse appropriately. Para 3 (Chapter 3) will be the natural progression of Gestalt in the 21st Century, do to the rise in development of new media I think it is appropriate at this point to investigate whether Gestalt is still relevant to designers or holds the same level of importance. 

Initial Presentation & Feedback

Feedback:

• Consider concentrating on one specific area of design? Or two relative ones.
• Keep relating to theories throughout and referring back to initial points and questions.
• Start to think of some ideas for practical work
• How far into the future will Gestalt go?

Gestalt Therapy/Theory Research

As the Gestalt Principles have become the main focus of my work I want to find out as much information as I can about them before I begin to compile my essay.

Who:

In 1910 Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Kohler began to develop the early Gestalt psychology with emphasis on pattern and visualising objects as a whole. 

What:

Gestalt psychology or gestaltism (German: Gestalt "shape, form") is a theory of mind of the Berlin School of experimental psychology. Gestalt psychology tries to understand the laws of our ability to acquire and maintain meaningful perceptions in an apparently chaotic world. Gestalt is a psychology term which means "unified whole". It refers to theories of visual perception developed by German psychologists in the 1920s. These theories attempt to describe how people tend to organize visual elements into groups or unified wholes when certain principles are applied. The main Gestalt Principles are:

1. Symmetry

2. Figure and Ground

3. Proximity

4. Similarity

5. Simplicity

6. Continuity

7. Closure

Why:

The Gestalt Principles were an important development and discovery of visual perception, it was a huge leap in terms of understanding and possible ways that we as humans see and perceive. They became an interest within design in the 1940's when it came to light that these principles could be a tool for artists and designers when creating.

This table shows the transition of how Gestalt began as a form of psychological analysis but was translated into a therapy, there are many traits within the therapy that can be seen in the later formed principles, this shows how all three elements tie together.

Planned Dissertation Schedule

Using this schedule has allowed me to organise my time thoroughly and be able to stick to a time scale that was realistic.

Dissertation Idea Finalisation

I have reconsidered my titles as I felt the initial ideas were far too restrictive and specific, I am aware I need to keep this to a degree of specificity but I don't want to limit myself so much that research will be near impossible to gather for my entire essay. Having said that I have now considered some different approaches and my final title will be:

'Are the Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception still applicable within contemporary methods of Graphic Design?'

My idea is to look at Gestalt at the very beginning as a psychological practice and follow it through until current day.

Some questions I need to ask when researching:

1. Who, what, why, where and when. Where did it all begin and who with etc.

2. How has it progressed to what it is today? Through what measures and investigations?

3. Who uses the principles today? Or are they outdated?

4. What purpose do they serve and are they necessary?

5. How has the development of New Media within this industry had an affect?