Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Acme: Split the screen into columns and stack windows inside them. Each window is a one line tag above a body. Take no margin, and separate neighbours with a single thin rule
- Type
- Set in Acme's manner (One typeface, one size. No bold and no coloured text; state is shown by an underline and by inverted selection only), and let Motif's lettering (A small sans at one fixed size, labels held to a single line, no letterspacing and no ornament inside the text) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Acme's material (Two ground colours only: pale yellow for the body, pale blue for the tag, black for the text. Underline execution in dark red and reference in dark green, and fill the centre of the small square at the left of the tag when the file has been modified); bring in exactly one thing from Motif (Pick one face color, derive a light edge and a dark edge from it, and paint them on opposite sides; swap the two while pressed, and never round a corner).
- Colour
- Build on #FFFFEA, #EAFFFF, #AA0000 and admit one accent from #D3D3D3, #B4B4B4, #5F9EA0.
Where they fight
- Acme and Motif both belong to Platform Screen Languages, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Acme Copy the look and turn the tag into a fixed menu, and you lose the actual mechanism, which is that any string at all can be a command.
- 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.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Acme (style, 1994–) and their accent from Motif (style, 1989–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Acme exists for: when a working screen should stop gaining widgets and let every place you can type hold a command, or when a development environment is meant to be extended by users typing commands into the tag themselves. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Acme - Windows are stacked in columns, and each window is just a one line tag above a body - The scroll bar sits at the left edge of the body, and nothing sits at the right - Sweeping a string with the middle button underlines it only while the button is held - The body is pale yellow and the tag pale blue, and there is not one button or icon to click Composition: Split the screen into columns and stack windows inside them. Each window is a one line tag above a body. Take no margin, and separate neighbours with a single thin rule. Type and lettering: One typeface, one size. No bold and no coloured text; state is shown by an underline and by inverted selection only. ## Accent comes from Motif, used sparingly - 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 Let one material quality come from it: Pick one face color, derive a light edge and a dark edge from it, and paint them on opposite sides; swap the two while pressed, and never round a corner. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #FFFFEA, carry the structure in #EAFFFF and #AA0000, and let a single accent come from #B4B4B4. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: technique, calm, rebellion, trust. ## Where they fight - Acme and Motif both belong to Platform Screen Languages, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - Acme: Copy the look and turn the tag into a fixed menu, and you lose the actual mechanism, which is that any string at all can be a command. - 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. ## 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.
Related entries
- Acme 1994– / Style / Platform Screen Languages
Acme is the interface Rob Pike described in a 1994 paper, a hybrid of window system, shell and editor. It has no icons and no pop-up or pull-down menus; any string anywhere on screen can be executed with the middle button or opened with the right one. Windows are stacked in columns, and each is only a one line tag above a body.
- Motif 1989– / Style / Platform Screen Languages
Motif is the interface language of UNIX workstations, maintained by The Open Group, standardized as IEEE 1295 and shipped on more than two hundred platforms. Its own data sheet calls the look a distinctive 3D beveled appearance, meaning every part sits on a gray face edged with one light line and one dark line.
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