Design Success and Failure / Syntactical Guidelines

This is one of the posters for the AIGA/NY 30th Anniversary (American Institute of Graphic Arts/New York Chapter.) It is very minimalist and bold but also holds important information and follows many syntactical guidelines. The focal point being the Empire state building, gives us information about what the poster is about but it also makes the design feel very balanced by arranging the three elements in a triangular shape. All of the elements in the design feel very balanced and harmonious and there is also a form on positive and negative patterns because of the contrasting colors. 


The poster below is also for the AIGA/NY 30th Anniversary but it has a very different design concept that focuses on stress and perception. Although there is a lot of tension I feel that it is still successful because it is making an impact and is still legible, but gives it a chaotic look because of the grouping of the type/information.  The vibrant color palette used makes for a very high impact design but at the same time the simplicity of the font and background give it a nice balance at the same time.