How Can the Knowledge of the Gestalt Laws of Gestalt Pshychology Help a Visual Communication Designer to Produce More Effective Designs?

How important is it to take into consideration the gestalt laws when you communicate visually. Is it possible that a good knowledge of them can help a designer to be more effective. And in that case, in what way.

The Gestalt Laws was first written by Max Wertheimer in 1923 and is common laws that shows that different shapes creates wholes and was needed for the Gestalt Psychology to work practically.

These laws were created in such a way that nobody would have to learn them but would appear in different cultures and with babies as well as animals. The laws that later were acknowledge are:

The law of proximity

According to the law of proximity parts are gruped together first and formeost according to the principle of closeness. The lines that are closest to each other in figure 1 are groupes as pairs or stripes. The dots closest to each other are gruoped in lines separated by the greater distance.

The law of closed forms

According to the law of closed forms parts are grouped together to create shapes. Our mind adds missing elements to create figures. The law of closed forms is stronger than the law of proximity and can outrule the principle of closeness. In figure 2a the lines 1 and2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6 etc. combine to form pairs. But in figure 2b the lines 2 and 3, 4 and 5, 6 and 7 etc. are combined.

The law of similarity

In a system with different elements, parts that are similar