# Motif × OPEN LOOK — composed image prompt
# IndexStyle — https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=motif+open-look
# Motif 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 Motif (style, 1989–) and their accent from OPEN LOOK (style, 1988–1990s).

## What to make

Make the kind of thing Motif exists for: rebuilding a UNIX workstation era application for an exhibit or a technical write up, or building instrument or CAD controls where pressable and unpressable must read as relief rather than color. Choose one subject and hold it across all four.

## Structure comes from Motif

- A gray face lit along its top and left edges and darkened along its bottom and right, so every part appears raised
- While a control is held down the two edge colors swap and the part sinks
- A thin rectangular ring is drawn around whichever control currently takes keyboard input
- Scroll bars are square cornered rectangles with a triangular arrow button at each end

Composition: Windows are cut into beveled rectangles and controls are packed a few pixels apart; there is almost no breathing room, the screen is filled with operable parts. Type and lettering: A small sans at one fixed size, labels held to a single line, no letterspacing and no ornament inside the text.

## 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 #D3D3D3, carry the structure in #B4B4B4 and #5F9EA0, 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.

## Where they fight

- Motif 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

- Motif: Replacing the two hard edge colors with a soft drop shadow kills the flip that signals a press, leaving decoration that merely looks raised.
- 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/motif/design.md · https://indexstyle.org/styles/open-look/design.md