Max MorrishThe Playbook

What, chapter five

Direct the eye

Proximityclose together reads as one group Similarityalike reads as a set, wherever it sits Continuationthe eye runs along a line Closurethe eye finishes the ring

Arrange them to show
The Gestalt sandbox: five ink circles and four lamp squares. Drag any shape, or focus it and use the arrow keys, and the line under the field names the grouping your eye is most likely making now, worked out from the distances between the shapes and what they share. Pull two clumps apart and proximity wins; space them evenly and likeness takes over; put four in a row and the eye runs along it; set six round a ring and it closes the gap. The buttons arrange one of each.

Definitely monochrome with a rich, important feel. Still minimalist though.

My brief for this site, 21 May 2026.

The idea

Design decides what gets read first, whether anyone planned it or not. People group what sits close together, what looks alike and what lines up, and they finish shapes that aren't finished. I'd use that on purpose: put the things that belong together near each other, make them look related, and line them up.

Then make one thing the most important and let weight, size and space say so. When everything is loud, the reader picks for you, and usually picks wrong. For type, one serif with one sans is plenty. And leave room. The empty space around something is a big part of what makes it look important.

The three-second test

Show someone a design for three seconds and ask what they saw first. Whatever they say is what the design is actually leading with. Below is a promo card for Kiln, an invented coffee roaster, built the way a lot of first drafts are: everything turned up at once.

New: Ethiopia, washed Kiln Roasted Tuesday.At your door Thursday. $16 Order this week’s roast 1 2 3 4 5

The first draft: the badge is read first and the headline last.

New: Ethiopia, washed Kiln Roasted Tuesday.At your door Thursday. $16 Order this week’s roast 1 2 3 4 5

Fixed: the headline is read first and the badge last.

The card shows for three seconds. Watch for whatever catches you first.

A promo card for Kiln. Run the test, say what you saw first, then use the three dials on any element and watch the numbers on the card, which show the order the model predicts people will read it in. On the first draft the badge goes first and the headline, the one thing the card is for, goes last. The model is an illustration, not a measurement: size counts most, then contrast, then weight, and sitting higher or further left gives a small head start.

How the reading order is worked out

Each element gets a score, and the card is read from the highest score down. The weights are mine and round on purpose; they show which way each dial pushes, not by how much.

score = 0.45 × size + 0.35 × contrast + 0.2 × weight + 1.2 × (how high it sits) + 0.3 × (how far left it sits)

Where I used it

  • The five-slide Instagram carousel in my spec launch for Lululemon. The first slide leads with one thing, a large title across the headphones, with one quieter line under it, that hardware shouldn’t be a hurdle, and nothing else on the slide but the handle. Spec work. Not commissioned by Lululemon.
  • Mockups of three social posts for Project COMTE, a streetwear brand, drawn in each platform’s own interface so they read as native posts rather than ads. The engagement numbers in them were made up for the mockup, so I don’t quote them. Spec work. Not commissioned by Project COMTE.
  • The slides I built for a small merchandise start-up: three steps in order, one per column, each naming the finding it came from, so the order reads before the detail does. Group work, my section
  • This site. The first version I built was bone, ink and oxblood, with the line “Think less, be more.” This one is a dark ground, one serif and light drawn as trails, so one thing on a page can glow while the rest stays quiet. Solo

What I’d do now

Close two course assignments I never shipped, with Northfield Food Bank, an invented student-run food rescue, as the client. The first is a carousel of five to seven slides for a B2B audience: the local cafés and grocers who could give Northfield their surplus food, one idea per slide and one thing leading on each. The second is a one-page brand guide: two colours, one serif and one sans, how Northfield sounds, and a rule for what leads on every page it makes.

Gestalt principles come from Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler. Design principles as taught in a digital marketing program, 2026.