WK5 Design Success and Failure in Relation to Syntactical Guidelines

BAD: This is an example of cover art from the game ICO. The game itself is rather good and cinematic, but the cover doesn't show it. Syntactically, the cover is not balanced: there are more humans on the left side than there are on the right. There is also a lot of empty space on the right side. The colors also do not complement each other, the colors and background look too busy, the title gives a counterbalance as well, which adds to more stress--this is a type of negative stress because it does not bring a single emphasis.

GOOD: This is an advertising for the Playstation accessories--it depicts the Playstation Move and charger dock. This image is well balanced and gives less stress visually. The audience is drawn to the large circular shapes because they are more uniform than the other abstract items; these shapes are the glowing head of the controller and the white solid circle with the 50% OFF text. Also the contrasting color of bright red will distract the eye secondly. The two controllers are also in the direct center of the image and will draw the eye as emphasis.