Are single double quotes an acceptable deviation from typographic rules? [closed]

I've recently noticed websites with pull quotes with only a left-hand quote. There are to basic scenarios:

1. Left hand quote is used as a graphic element to indicate a quotation follows.*


2. Quote appears to be used as an opening quote, but is not closed.**

Use As Graphic Element

Unclosed Qutoe

Is either scenario an acceptable deviation from typographic rules? I don't care for either approach, but since the position of the quote in scenario one treats the quote more like a glyph and not text, I would say yes. Scenario two seems wrong to me since the quote is close enough to the text to appear as part of the text.