方 may have pictured a plow or a pair of boats lashed side by side — something with straight, squared edges. From 'square' it broadened to 'direction', 'region', and 'method' (a 'square' way of doing things).
方 is wonderfully broad. As DIRECTION: 东方 (the East), 南方 (the south). As PLACE: 地方 (a place — pairs with 地, which you know), 方向 (direction). As METHOD: 方法 (a method/way), 方便 (convenient). The ancient Chinese believed 天圆地方 — 'heaven is round, earth is square' — so 方 (square) also carried the sense of the orderly, human world. A square is honest and reliable; calling someone 方 once meant upright.
Straight, squared edges — a SQUARE; a DIRECTION; a PLACE.
Ancient Chinese cosmology said 天圆地方 — 'heaven is round, earth is square'. So 方 (square) stands for the orderly human world: 地方 (place), 方法 (method), 方向 (direction).