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 Apple Desktop Interface: A full width menu bar owns the top edge and everything below it is the work surface; rounded rectangular windows overlap freely and margins step in whole pixels
- Type
- Set in Apple Desktop Interface's manner (A heavy bitmap sans, letters placed only on whole pixel positions, no anti aliasing; headings differ from body text by size rather than weight), and let Aqua's lettering (No shadow on text, weighted to stay legible over gloss) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Apple Desktop Interface's material (Black and white alone; middle values come from checkerboard or diagonal dot patterns, soft shadows and gradients are out, and every boundary is a one pixel black rule); bring in exactly one thing from Aqua (A hard white highlight above, reflection and deep shadow below).
- Colour
- Build on #000000, #FFFFFF, #7F7F7F and admit one accent from #ececec, #6aaff0, #264788.
Where they fight
- Apple Desktop Interface and Aqua share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over.
- Apple Desktop Interface and Aqua both belong to Apple UI, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Apple Desktop Interface Scaling the bitmap face by anything other than a whole number, or letting it anti alias, blurs the letterforms and erases the placed-by-hand dot density the style lives on.
- Aqua Gloss and shadow applied evenly to every component hides what is actually pressable, leaving texture where hierarchy should be.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Apple Desktop Interface (style, 1984–1997) and their accent from Aqua (style, 2000–2014). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Apple Desktop Interface exists for: redrawing early Macintosh screens for an exhibition panel or an article on a modern display, or designing for a device that can only print or light two tones, such as e paper or a receipt printer. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Apple Desktop Interface - Two tones only, black and white, with gray faked by a checkerboard of black dots - Window corners are rounded and the title bar carries several thin horizontal rules - A menu bar pinned to the top edge of the screen, the Apple mark sitting at its left end - Chicago, a heavy bitmap face whose letters are packed into a cell of 9 by 7 dots Composition: A full width menu bar owns the top edge and everything below it is the work surface; rounded rectangular windows overlap freely and margins step in whole pixels. Type and lettering: A heavy bitmap sans, letters placed only on whole pixel positions, no anti aliasing; headings differ from body text by size rather than weight. ## Accent comes from Aqua, used sparingly - Gel-gloss buttons - Pinstriped grounds - Deep drop shadows - Metaphors of water and light Let one material quality come from it: A hard white highlight above, reflection and deep shadow below. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #FFFFFF, carry the structure in #7F7F7F and #000000, and let a single accent come from #6aaff0. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: trust, technique, nostalgia, futurity, play, intimacy. ## Where they fight - Apple Desktop Interface and Aqua share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over. - Apple Desktop Interface and Aqua both belong to Apple UI, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - Apple Desktop Interface: Scaling the bitmap face by anything other than a whole number, or letting it anti alias, blurs the letterforms and erases the placed-by-hand dot density the style lives on. - Aqua: Gloss and shadow applied evenly to every component hides what is actually pressable, leaving texture where hierarchy should be. ## 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
- Apple Desktop Interface 1984–1997 / Style / Apple UI
This is the design language Apple named itself, in the 1987 guidelines book whose subtitle reads The Apple Desktop Interface. Working with one bit of black and white, it wrote down a house style: halftone dot patterns standing in for gray, rounded window corners, a title bar of stacked horizontal rules, and a heavy bitmap face.
- Aqua 2000–2014 / Style / Apple UI
Mac OS X's design language of buttons you want to lick. Jelly gloss, pinstripes, deep shadows and the genie effect staged digital components as objects you could touch, and set the terms for UI throughout the 2000s. What the web made of it with images is Web 2.0 Gloss.
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