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 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 OPEN LOOK's lettering (Set every shared element in the same sans serif variable width face. Size in points rather than pixels, and scale through the 10, 12, 14 and 19 point steps the spec provides) 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 OPEN LOOK (Make the design work in black and white first. For the three dimensional version pick one background colour, derive the recessed shade by adding 10 to 15 percent black, and reserve white for lit edges).
- Colour
- Build on #ececec, #6aaff0, #264788 and admit one accent from #000000, #808080, #FFFFFF.
Where they fight
- Aqua and OPEN LOOK share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over.
Caution
- Aqua Gloss and shadow applied evenly to every component hides what is actually pressable, leaving texture where hierarchy should be.
- OPEN LOOK Starting from the three dimensional colour scheme collapses the moment the design meets a monochrome display, where neither the raised edges nor the pushpin survive.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Aqua (style, 2000–2014) and their accent from OPEN LOOK (style, 1988–1990s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Aqua exists for: recreating 2000s digital culture with the texture it actually had, or making what is clickable read at once as a pressable object. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Aqua - Gel-gloss buttons - Pinstriped grounds - Deep drop shadows - Metaphors of water and light Composition: Components evenly spaced, gaps left for shadows to fall into. Type and lettering: No shadow on text, weighted to stay legible over gloss. ## Accent comes from OPEN LOOK, used sparingly - A pushpin at the left end of a pop-up window's header, which pins the window to the workspace instead of dismissing it - Three dots after a label announce a window, an outlined triangle announces a menu - Scrollbars split into an elevator, a cable and top and bottom cable anchors, with the dark part of the cable showing how much is in view - The workspace is a 50 percent dither pattern and menu drop shadows are a 75 percent pattern Let one material quality come from it: Make the design work in black and white first. For the three dimensional version pick one background colour, derive the recessed shade by adding 10 to 15 percent black, and reserve white for lit edges. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #ececec, carry the structure in #6aaff0 and #264788, and let a single accent come from #808080. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: futurity, play, intimacy, technique, trust. ## Where they fight - Aqua and OPEN LOOK share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over. ## What goes wrong - Aqua: Gloss and shadow applied evenly to every component hides what is actually pressable, leaving texture where hierarchy should be. - OPEN LOOK: Starting from the three dimensional colour scheme collapses the moment the design meets a monochrome display, where neither the raised edges nor the pushpin survive. ## 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
- 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.
- OPEN LOOK 1988–1990s / Style / Platform Screen Languages
A screen language for Unix workstations, specified by Sun Microsystems in a functional specification published by Addison-Wesley in 1989. The book defines two parallel designs, one black and white for monochrome displays and one three dimensional for grayscale and colour, sets a single sans serif variable width face for every common element, and tells implementers that restraint is the key to colour. Each pop-up window carries a pushpin at the left of its header, and pinning it leaves the window on the workspace.
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