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 Arts and Crafts: Repeat plants and creatures with the seams hidden
- Type
- Set in Arts and Crafts's manner (Serifs or ornamented letters that feel hand-cut), and let Droog's lettering (Keep lettering off the object. Where an explanation is needed, give it one short title and set it in a single plain sans serif) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Arts and Crafts's material (Deep indigo, plant-dye tones, off-white; keep the texture of paper and cloth); bring in exactly one thing from Droog (Combine materials of different origins: discarded drawers, cord and strapping, fibre soaked in resin. Leave the traces of making unpolished and let the fixings serve as the finish).
- Colour
- Build on #1f3540, #a7a26b, #d9c9a6 and admit one accent from #141414, #D9C39B, #8C8B86.
Where they fight
- Arts and Crafts and Droog share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over.
- Arts and Crafts and Droog stand roughly 130 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Arts and Crafts A floral print alone loses the conviction. Align material, making and a structure that lasts.
- Droog Reproduce only the look of salvage in new material and the origin, which is the point, drops out, leaving a weathered decorative finish.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Arts and Crafts (style, 1860s–1910s) and their accent from Droog (style, 1990s–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Arts and Crafts exists for: honesty for long-lived tools and household brands, or uniting pattern, letter and material in one story. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Arts and Crafts - Repeating plants - Flat contours - Density of handwork - Colors from nature Composition: Repeat plants and creatures with the seams hidden. Type and lettering: Serifs or ornamented letters that feel hand-cut. ## Accent comes from Droog, used sparingly - Ready made parts of different origins are bound into one piece without matching their colour or wear - Straps and cords that look like temporary fixings stay on as the final structure - The making process remains on the finished surface, with knots and joints left unsanded - Because the parts differ every time, no two objects from one design are alike Let one material quality come from it: Combine materials of different origins: discarded drawers, cord and strapping, fibre soaked in resin. Leave the traces of making unpolished and let the fixings serve as the finish. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #d9c9a6, carry the structure in #a7a26b and #1f3540, and let a single accent come from #8C8B86. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: intimacy, luxury, nostalgia, rebellion, play. ## Where they fight - Arts and Crafts and Droog share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over. - Arts and Crafts and Droog stand roughly 130 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle. ## What goes wrong - Arts and Crafts: A floral print alone loses the conviction. Align material, making and a structure that lasts. - Droog: Reproduce only the look of salvage in new material and the origin, which is the point, drops out, leaving a weathered decorative finish. ## 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
- Arts and Crafts 1860s–1910s / Style / Craft Movements
Returns material and handwork to the center of design, joining every detail of daily life under one conviction.
- Droog 1990s– / Style / Furniture and Interiors
Droog is the shared manner of a Dutch designers' cooperative that formed in the 1990s, and droog is the Dutch word for dry. Familiar things, a salvaged drawer or a knot, are kept as the structure of the object instead of being hidden by finishing. The group made simplicity and wit into a common type, which set it against the slicker industrial design of the same years.
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