A friend and I were going over one of his recent business card designs, and I made a comment about how grouping and spacing affects the way elements on the page are perceived. He asked for clarification, and I said:
This is three dots:
o o o
…but this is a story:
o o o
A little gestalt goes a long way :-) I’m sure I got this from somewhere, probably Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics. Tufte has a lot to say about these kinds of relationships also, though a specific citation eludes me at the moment.
UPDATE: If you’re scratching your head thinking that the dots look exactly the same, it’s because your RSS reader is messing up the formatting of the text. Sigh.
Mihaela 
Carolyn 
If Else 
anon 
Beautifully put, David. And right on.
That is so elegantly simple. I love it. Fritz Perls would love it. Thanks.
I agree, that’s a wonderfully elegant example.
Love this, David!
And the comment about a Threadless submission? Absolutely!
This is great!