1. TASK: Look at the following logo and consider the shape, form, simplicity of design and the way it communicates.
2. TASK: In your own words explain what you consider the different Gestalt principles in this logo to be. Describe the logo and justify your answers.
- Figure-ground articulation: The logo has two levels. The white background and the blue foreground, consisting of the logo. In some of the icons negative space is used, but the over all design has grouped the icons together using closure and proximity, not interwoven space. However, the white space is as important as the blue icons, together creating both the U and a rythmic pattern.
- Proximity principle: The monogram consistes of icons grouped together in the shape of the letter U. The brain interprets the icons as one shape, thereby reading the letter U.
- Common fate principle: There is no obvious movement in this logo.
- Similarity principle: Though the icons are similar in design, there are no repeated forms.
- Continuity principle: The logo has a continuity i both the monogram and the wordmark, but it isn’t a dominant principle, as grouping is more relevant here.
- Closure principle: The group of icons in the U forms the letter without closure. We don’t see the letter U written out in the common form, but the group forms a U using the closure principle, where the brain completes the form, filling in the empty spaces.
- Symmetry: The U-shape is symetrical. The icon within are not.
- Prägnanz: All the icons within the monogram are grouped and percived as the letter U.
- Simplicity: The eye gathers the icons into a simpler shape; the U
3. TASK: Pick any 3 Gestalt principles and recreate 3 versions of the logo according to your chosen principle. Be creative and innovative with how you do it. Sketch, plan, and do it by hand before digitally creating your favourite option in a vector format.
I had no previous knowledge of who Unilever was and needed to do some research.
«We want our business to flourish, and we know that our success depends on others flourishing around us. That’s why our purpose is to make sustainable living commonplace, and why sustainable, long-term growth is at the heart of our business model.«
«Our vision is a new way of doing business – one that delivers growth by serving society and the planet.» -from Unilever’s webpage.
They are a 120 year old company now consisting of brands like Lipton, Dove, Knorr and Biotex. The current business model is producing a wide range of everyday goods in a sustainable fashion.
I’ve been thinking about how I solved the last weeks project and I came to the conlusion that the principles are not yet integrated into my brain. I went onto Pinterest and did some searches there, finding lots of interesting examples. Please have a look at the page I created. I have noted the Gestalt Principles I found in the comments for most of the photos and will return to it for practice.
More research:
I made a page on Pinterest for the logos.
Sketches:
Three logos based on and inspired by the sketches:
Logo1:
Logo 2:
Logo 3:
Hedvig Lien's Reflective Journal 