Design Success and Failure / Syntactical Guidelines

http://hifructose.com/2012/03/07/hi-fructose-magazine-vol23-preview/

The design work that I have chosen is an article on Junko Mizuno in Hi-Fructose magazine. I have chosen this image because of the design of the article’s layout. The design of this article has some syntactical guidelines put to use. There is a balance within the text of the article in that it is noticeably placed on a grid. The words are visibly horizontal, which makes them easier for the viewer to read. The article is still visually appealing because of the use of different type sizes; the larger headline type allows for attraction and grouping to take effect because the viewer’s eye is lead to that which is visually similar. Stress is being used by the separation of the image and the article. The image takes up the largest area while the article’s space seems to be battling with the image for some space because of the small width. Because of this imbalance, it creates stress, which brings up interest within the viewer to emphasize on the content of the article. Sharpening can also be seen in the headline, the title of the article is at the far right of the page while the name of the artist is at the far left of the text page, this creates stress and imbalance that the viewer sees as eye catching. With the use of these syntactical guidelines, the composition of this article succeeds in communicating.

http://ashleighmeusel.com/13902/54517/gallery/boycott-magazine

This article is from an issue of Boycott Magazine. This article is an example of a design that uses some syntactical guidelines, but they have not worked. The syntactical guideline of balance is used within the horizontal grid the text and forms being used are put on. The reader must be able to read the text, but balance fails because of the composition of the article. The left side of the article is using a lot of white space with the exception of a large pull quote while the right side of the article has a heavy black bar running vertically across the top and bottom. These different forms create an imbalance within the composition of the article and make it visually unappealing to the viewer. The large pull quote put into the left hand side of the article can show attraction and grouping through similar type size and color, yet is offset by the couple of words that only contain an outline. This large separation and additional white space creates a harsh overall image. Stress can be seen within the addition of the large black bar on the far right side of the article but because it is so harsh compared to all of the white space that the rest of the article contains. This large jump in contrast is why this doesn’t work with the overall design. Sharpening is used within this article by the large type sizes and color choices but again, does not make for an overall, uniform design for the viewer; this is why the syntactical guidelines used within the layout of this article do not work.