Orienting pictures…

During my days working for Look ski bindings, its founder and owner, Jean Beyl, was insisting upon showing product oriented in a certain direction when illustrated of photographed. 

Namely, the “front” of the product had to be placed to the right while the tail, obviously followed to the left. He liked to call that approach “The way a woodworking plane is used...”

Ever since, I’ve bought into that theory and just as we read and write from left to right, I give objects or specific actions the same direction when I represent them. I see in it a way to communicate a positive motion. 

If I want to impress upon the viewer and convey a negative tone, I might turn the object or action from right to left. In spite of some research I have attempted to conduct, I have not been able to validate this rather flimsy theory. 

Again, this would be derived from roman writing that we all use in the western world, going from left to right. Evidently Hebrew, Arabic and to a degree Chinese and Japanese, proceed in the opposite direction, right to left, challenging that theory… 

What do you think?