# CDE Interface × OPEN LOOK — composed image prompt
# IndexStyle — https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=cde-interface+open-look
# CDE Interface carries the structure and OPEN LOOK 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 CDE Interface (style, 1993–2000s) and their accent from OPEN LOOK (style, 1988–1990s).

## What to make

Make the kind of thing CDE Interface exists for: shipping one desktop and business application language across UNIX workstations, or reconstructing a 1990s technical terminal with its operating structure intact. Choose one subject and hold it across all four.

## Structure comes from CDE Interface

- Box-like Front Panel along the lower edge
- Raised buttons and recessed fields made from paired light and dark borders
- Low-color pixel icons with dark outlines
- Persistent buttons for switching among workspaces

Composition: Layer work windows centrally and keep the Front Panel and workspace switch along the lower edge. Type and lettering: Use brief system type and labels that remain distinct at small sizes.

## Accent comes from OPEN LOOK, used sparingly

- A pushpin at the left end of a pop-up window's header, which pins the window to the workspace instead of dismissing it
- Three dots after a label announce a window, an outlined triangle announces a menu
- Scrollbars split into an elevator, a cable and top and bottom cable anchors, with the dark part of the cable showing how much is in view
- The workspace is a 50 percent dither pattern and menu drop shadows are a 75 percent pattern

Let one material quality come from it: Make the design work in black and white first. For the three dimensional version pick one background colour, derive the recessed shade by adding 10 to 15 percent black, and reserve white for lit edges.

## Colour and feeling

Build the ground on #B9B7A5, carry the structure in #5B7B7A and #252422, and let a single accent come from #808080. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette.
Feeling to carry: technique, trust, nostalgia.

## Where they fight

- CDE Interface and OPEN LOOK both belong to Platform Screen Languages, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.

## What goes wrong

- CDE Interface: Gray bevels alone are not CDE. Front Panel, workspaces and Motif state rules must work as one environment.
- OPEN LOOK: Starting from the three dimensional colour scheme collapses the moment the design meets a monochrome display, where neither the raised edges nor the pushpin survive.

## 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/cde-interface/design.md · https://indexstyle.org/styles/open-look/design.md