# Aqua × elementary OS — composed image prompt
# IndexStyle — https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=aqua+elementary-os
# Aqua carries the structure and elementary OS appears as the accent.
# Style descriptors only. This prompt names no artist, studio, brand or work.

Produce four original images that take their structure from Aqua (style, 2000–2014) and their accent from elementary OS (style, 2011–).

## What to make

Make the kind of thing Aqua exists for: recreating 2000s digital culture with the texture it actually had, or making what is clickable read at once as a pressable object. Choose one subject and hold it across all four.

## Structure comes from Aqua

- Gel-gloss buttons
- Pinstriped grounds
- Deep drop shadows
- Metaphors of water and light

Composition: Components evenly spaced, gaps left for shadows to fall into. Type and lettering: No shadow on text, weighted to stay legible over gloss.

## Accent comes from elementary OS, used sparingly

- A few primary actions in the top toolbar
- Short copy built from concrete verbs
- Multicolor app icons with distinctive silhouettes and a dark one-pixel outline
- White work surfaces, pale chrome and blue suggested actions

Let one material quality come from it: Build from white and pale gray, fine shadows and blue suggested actions; give icons unique silhouettes and a dark one-pixel edge.

## Colour and feeling

Build the ground on #ececec, carry the structure in #6aaff0 and #264788, and let a single accent come from #3689E6. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette.
Feeling to carry: futurity, play, intimacy, calm, technique.

## What goes wrong

- Aqua: Gloss and shadow applied evenly to every component hides what is actually pressable, leaving texture where hierarchy should be.
- elementary OS: macOS-like wallpaper and rounded icons miss the point. The concise writing and one-window-one-purpose model must travel with the look.

## Across the four

Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture.

## Constraints

- Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work.
- Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work.
- Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.

Design specs for each entry: https://indexstyle.org/styles/aqua/design.md · https://indexstyle.org/styles/elementary-os/design.md