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 XrossMediaBar (XMB)'s lettering (A light sans at a size readable from across a room; only the selected item carries a name, the rest stay as icons) 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 XrossMediaBar (XMB) (Thin pale blue outline icons on a near black ground; emphasis comes only from lighting the one item at the crossing in gold, never from filling an area).
- Colour
- Build on #ffffff, #b3d6ef, #535371 and admit one accent from #223442, #BEE3F5, #E0BA73.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Aero Spreading translucency and gloss across the whole screen makes legibility shift with whatever moves behind the text, and hides what is clickable.
- XrossMediaBar (XMB) Move a highlight instead of holding the crossing still and the viewer loses their place the moment a row grows long.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Aero (style, 2006–2012) and their accent from XrossMediaBar (XMB) (layout, 2003–2013). ## 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 XrossMediaBar (XMB), used sparingly - A horizontal row and a vertical column cross slightly left of center, and only the item at that crossing glows gold - Text labels appear for the selected item alone; the rest of the rows are icons only - The ground is one near black navy and the icons are thin pale blue outlines rather than filled shapes - Left and right move through categories, up and down through items, but it is the rows that slide while the crossing stays put Let one material quality come from it: Thin pale blue outline icons on a near black ground; emphasis comes only from lighting the one item at the crossing in gold, never from filling an area. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #ffffff, carry the structure in #b3d6ef and #535371, and let a single accent come from #E0BA73. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: futurity, luxury, technique, calm. ## 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. - XrossMediaBar (XMB): Move a highlight instead of holding the crossing still and the viewer loses their place the moment a row grows long. ## 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.
- XrossMediaBar (XMB) 2003–2013 / Layout / Platform Screen Languages
Sony's trademarked interface language for its consoles and televisions. As the official manual puts it, the horizontal row shows system features in categories and the vertical column shows the items available under each category, and the single point where the two cross lights up gold to say where you are. Everything else stays pale blue on a dark field.
Share this composition:https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=aero+xmb