I watched some basketball games recently when I saw a design on one of the team’s warm-up shirts. The design includes the outline of a backboard. The shooting square is represented by the words “Bring Your Game” stacked on top of each other.

Rather than have the backboard outline a complete square, the design uses a Gestalt rule of closure. Most of the bottom line is absent. In its place is the word “Game.”

I thought this works well as a design inspiration for a student publication. It is simple, easy and effective.

I plan to incorporate it in my journalism design classes as an easy solution for designing info boxes or mods. Instead of a phrase intended to represent a shooting square, the type can be a simple header such as “Fast Facts” or “By The Numbers.”

In fact, I shared the idea with a couple of students and they have used it in their designs. Here’s a look.