Design Success and Failure in Relation to Syntactical Guidelines

DAI 323

Assignment 5

Design Success and Failure in Relation to Syntactical Guidelines

Successful

The design work presented above is a very good example of applied syntactical guidelines that have been put into good use for the product. The goal of the product is to communicate a soft smooth product line of hand soap, lotion, and anti bacterial mist. The product is communicating natural ingredients for the user. The way the message is been communicated is by using perception as the arrangement of the elements to deliver the message. For example the fonts are very simple and smooth looking. Also the shape of the bottles are formed with smooth curvy lines, along with the colors that have been chosen (soft earthy green, ocean blue, and a very soft flowerily orange). Three simple colors but they do work well with the smooth shape of the bottles which communicates natural and smooth ingredients for the user. Another syntactical guideline that has been put into good use is asymmetrical balance, leveling, and attraction. These guidelines are all working well with each other. The asymmetrical balance works well with the product’s logo since the leaf is big and bold enough to complement the capital “C” in the logo; therefore that creates balance. The leveling goes well with the composition since it has achieved balance by positioning the logo in the middle of the bottle plus the labeling with smaller soft color fonts in the middle as well, creates a total harmony, calming feeling in the product. The attraction guideline is present since we can experience a good interaction between all the elements of the design. This is a successful design, because it incorporates several of the syntactical guidelines that helps a product be successful if put in good use. Part of the success is the elements that are used plus the way they have been applied and complements each other and helps communicate the message to the user plus is very pleasant to the audience’s eye.

Failure

The design above is a good example of failure design. First of all the message is unclear, the packaging on the box mentions “Children of war gang violence….” and other writing that is not legible but is promoting purified water. The reason why is a failure is because the whole design in general do not have a good perception of the message the elements are opposites, is confusing, no balance on how they trying to sell purified water but the message of peace and hope and children of war does not have anything to do with the product. The design is not pleasant at all since the peace sign right on the edge of the box creates ambiguous sharpening tension in the design. Based on that the whole composition is disorganized and because of that it creates stress. The elements are all over there is a lot of disconnection in the design. There is no flow at all the eye is all over, the purpose and meaning of such design is a total failure because of all the decisions on how they gave a bad use to the syntactical guidelines. Besides that the big bulky fonts also do not work well at all for the design. Everything that has been laid out is making no sense and is working against the product; so that makes it a good failure desig.