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 Aero: Glass only on the frame, content areas kept fully opaque
- Type
- Set in Aero's manner (Small light labels on the frame, dark enough to survive translucency), and let Ribbon's lettering (Label every command. Icons stand alone only where the commands are ones everybody already knows) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Aero's material (Heavily blurred backdrop, a thin top highlight, a faint tint); bring in exactly one thing from Ribbon (Draw each icon at both 32 by 32 and 16 by 16, giving the large size to the frequent commands. Size in ribbon gallery thumbnails to fit inside the 48 pixel band).
- Colour
- Build on #ffffff, #b3d6ef, #535371 and admit one accent from #D6E4F5, #2E5C99, #F5F4F2.
Where they fight
- Aero and Ribbon both belong to Microsoft UI, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Aero Spreading translucency and gloss across the whole screen makes legibility shift with whatever moves behind the text, and hides what is clickable.
- Ribbon Merely refactoring existing menus and toolbars into the band costs the extra space without gaining the results oriented commands that justify it.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Aero (style, 2006–2012) and their accent from Ribbon (layout, 2007–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Aero exists for: work screens stacking many windows where the layer beneath must stay visible, or control panels for photo or video apps floated above the content itself. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Aero - Frosted frames - Reflections and highlights - Live thumbnails - GPU-composited depth Composition: Glass only on the frame, content areas kept fully opaque. Type and lettering: Small light labels on the frame, dark enough to survive translucency. ## Accent comes from Ribbon, used sparingly - A tabbed band sits permanently at the top of the window, fixed at 48 pixels high - The band is cut into labelled groups, with each group name running along its lower edge - Command icons come in two sizes, 32 by 32 and 16 by 16, and the frequent ones take the large size and lead the group - Coloured contextual tabs appear when an object type is selected, and their tab set labels end in Tools Let one material quality come from it: Draw each icon at both 32 by 32 and 16 by 16, giving the large size to the frequent commands. Size in ribbon gallery thumbnails to fit inside the 48 pixel band. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #ffffff, carry the structure in #b3d6ef and #535371, and let a single accent come from #D6E4F5. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: futurity, luxury, technique, trust. ## Where they fight - Aero and Ribbon both belong to Microsoft UI, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - Aero: Spreading translucency and gloss across the whole screen makes legibility shift with whatever moves behind the text, and hides what is clickable. - Ribbon: Merely refactoring existing menus and toolbars into the band costs the extra space without gaining the results oriented commands that justify it. ## 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
- Aero 2006–2012 / Style / Microsoft UI
The translucent glass UI of Vista and 7: frosted window frames, live thumbnails and GPU-composited depth making 'through glass' the OS's standard vocabulary.
- Ribbon 2007– / Layout / Microsoft UI
A command bar that organises a program's features into a series of tabs at the top of a window, replacing both the menu bar and the toolbars. Microsoft introduced it with Office 2007 and named its parts in the Windows guidelines: core tabs, groups, contextual tabs, galleries, the Application button and the Quick Access Toolbar. Every command carries a label, and its size follows how often it is used.
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