Design Success and Failure

 The first picture on the right demonstrates a good use of balance and sharpening.  The fish is on the center of the plate, and the fish body is lined horizontally creating harmonic visual balance. The book title on the top is centered symmetrically, while the red and black type is in harmony with the fish taking up two thirds of the layout. As for using the technique of sharpening, the white plate pops out in the gray background, and the cracks grab attention from viewer, hence a great use of the sharpening technique. 


The second picture on the right is an example of the syntactical guidelines not used efficiently. The designer intended to use the techniques of sharpening and grouping to bring focus to 
his design, but the canvas is way too distracting. 
In the picture on the left, the guideline of 
grouping is applied, but the canvas and accessory of the model is attracting more attention due to content, thus this design fails. As for the model on the right, the technique of sharpening is applied but the background is fighting for attention, and the face of the model is sharper than the artwork itself creating distractions making this an unsuccessful design work.