Tutorial 7: Assignment 6 - Design Analysis (Powerpoint Presentation)

For this week's assignment we had to break up into groups of 2 to analyze one good and one bad design using all the design principles we have been taught so far, including Gestalt principles. I teamed up with Jesse for this one; he would analyze a good design, and I would analyze a bad one.

While surfing the www.allposters.com website for appropriate posters to choose, I came across the below poster which I thought would be an obvious choice for a bad design:

Here are my comments on it (the bulleted points I included in my Powerpoint slides):

1. Visual Balance

-Lack of balance of space – empty space too little

According to Reddy's lecture, a good design should have the empty space (which is also significant) balancing out the design elements; however, in this case, there are too many design elements and too little empty space, lending an imbalanced feel to the poster.

2. Unity and Contrast

-Confusing, too many elements competing for attention, too cluttered, don’t know where to focus
-Lack of contrast – No dominant image that stands out

There is a lack of unity due to the presence of a large variety of different elements cluttering up the whole poster. From the tall men in hats to the apples to the monster heads to the weird-looking DJ, one simply does not know which one of these images portrays the central theme of the poster. Two words immediately come to mind here - information overload. Incidentally, the main object that one's attention should have been drawn to here - the yellow submarine, may be located at the centre of the poster and "framed" against a grey background but it is still not obvious and dominant enough since there so many bigger and louder images cluttered all over the poster. Hence, there is a lack of contrast that fails to highlight the prominent image(s) of the poster.

3. Gestalt Principles

-Figure and Ground - yellow submarine and beast heads in the lower section are hardly visible against the dotted background

If you look closely, there is a small yellow submarine just to the left of the beast heads. However, the visibility of such an apparently significant object is "lost" as it is set against a dotted background which causes the submarine to be "camouflaged" against it.

-Too little unity; poster as a whole has too many colours and too few “common elements” (similarity is absent even though there are some common elements)

Basically, as stated under point 2. There are so many different types of images that even common ones which are present, such as the Beatles' framed faces are not being adequately brought out. Another point to take note is the use of colours in the poster. There is no dominant colour scheme that adequately frames the main subject matter prominently by contrasting it with other less important objects; the yellow submarine seems lost in a myriad of bright, dark and gaudy colours and the grey background hardly makes it stand out. Hence, there is no predictable pattern, of the colours (value) of various images, that focuses one's attention on specific dominant elements.

-Proximity – different images are too close together, don’t know where one image begins and the other ends

This makes it hard to associate certain "common" elements, such as the afore-mentioned framed faces, with each other, since they are so far apart from each other but so close to other seemingly unrelated elements.

4. Controlling Attention

-Lack of control of attention; too many images at the edges, letting eyes slip

Although there are images such as fingers and heads at 3 of the 4 corners pointing inwards in an attempt to keep one's attention within the frame, there is no such "pointer" in the bottom left corner of the poster, thus allowing one's gaze to fall off the poster's frame.

Here is Jesse's example of a good poster and his points:



1. Visual Balance

Dominance – The silhouette of Batman dominates the poster which gives it the most visual weight

Positive and Negative space – Clearly evident

Balance – Balance in the asymmetrical form

2. Controlling Attention

Visual Centered

3. Gestalt Principles

Continuance – His head is slanted down which leads the audience’s gaze to the bottom where the title of the movie is


The presentation went well without additional comments, except for comments that the finer details of the Batman poster such as the logo at the bottom cannot be seen (due to the "screen" effect, as opposed to having an actual print-out).