Compose two styles
Rather than blending two styles into a middle, this assigns them roles: one carries the structure, the other appears as an accent. Where the two fight, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Aqua: Components evenly spaced, gaps left for shadows to fall into
- Type
- Set in Aqua's manner (No shadow on text, weighted to stay legible over gloss), and let BeOS Interface's lettering (A small sans, one line of it, living inside the tab; names get cut short rather than trailing into an ellipsis.) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Aqua's material (A hard white highlight above, reflection and deep shadow below); bring in exactly one thing from BeOS Interface (One light gray carries the whole surface; only the front window's tab is painted yellow and the rest stay gray, with no third color invited in.).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #FFCB00, #D8D8D8, #9D9D9D.
Where they fight
These two are already listed as related, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Aqua Gloss and shadow applied evenly to every component hides what is actually pressable, leaving texture where hierarchy should be.
- BeOS Interface Spreading the yellow around as a general accent destroys its one job, marking the front window, and the tab drops to decoration.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Aqua (Style, 2000–2014) and its accent from BeOS Interface (Style, 1995–2001). Structural cues: Gel-gloss buttons; Pinstriped grounds; Deep drop shadows; Metaphors of water and light. Accent cues, used sparingly: Only the front window's tab is yellow; every other window keeps a gray tab; The tab is as wide as the window's name, not as wide as the window; Holding Shift and dragging the tab slides it along the top edge of the window; The Deskbar stands in the upper right corner with running applications stacked below it. Composition: Components evenly spaced, gaps left for shadows to fall into. Type and lettering: No shadow on text, weighted to stay legible over gloss. Let one material quality come from the second style: One light gray carries the whole surface; only the front window's tab is painted yellow and the rest stay gray, with no third color invited in.. Mood: Futurism, Play, Intimacy, Technology, Rebellion. Color: build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 with a single accent drawn from #FFCB00, #D8D8D8, #9D9D9D. Constraints: do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. Produce an original composition in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- 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.
- BeOS Interface 1995–2001 / Style / Platform Screen Languages
Be's interface language threw away the full width title bar and put a short yellow tab on the top edge of each window instead. The user's guide calls sliding that tab a unique feature of Be windows: hold Shift and the tab travels sideways, so stacked windows leave a row of visible tabs rather than burying one another.
Share this pairing:https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=aqua+beos-interface