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 Azulejo: Set the tile grid first, compose so breaks fall on the joints
- Type
- Set in Azulejo's manner (Fire the inscription in the same blue and frame it into the wall), and let Kōwhaiwhai's lettering (Let koru direction mark the phrasing and keep the spiral turns even) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Azulejo's material (Cobalt blue on white glaze, judged with the gloss reflection included); bring in exactly one thing from Kōwhaiwhai (Only red, black and white, with black holding the ground down).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
- Both belong to Ornament, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Azulejo Laying a large picture out without regard for the joints misaligns grid and drawing, and the wall looks like a printed sheet pasted on.
- Kōwhaiwhai Using the patterns as decoration apart from the genealogy they record removes the sign of whose story it is and becomes appropriation.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Azulejo (Style, 15th century–) and its accent from Kōwhaiwhai (Style, 18th century–). Structural cues: Blue-and-white tile; Narrative panels wall-high; Repeating pattern; One body with the building. Accent cues, used sparingly: Repeating koru spirals; Red, black and white; Symmetry and reflection; Bands following the rafters. Composition: Set the tile grid first, compose so breaks fall on the joints. Type and lettering: Fire the inscription in the same blue and frame it into the wall. Let one material quality come from the second style: Only red, black and white, with black holding the ground down. Mood: Calm, Luxury, Nostalgia, Trust, Intimacy. Color: build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 with a single accent drawn from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615. 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
- Azulejo 15th century– / Style / Ornament
Portugal's blue-and-white tile works as the skin of architecture, opening story, map and ornament onto the street until the city itself can be read as a printed plate.
- Kōwhaiwhai 18th century– / Style / Ornament
Scroll patterns run along the rafters of Māori meeting houses. Built from the koru, the unfurling fern shoot, and worked in red, black and white alone, they unfold symmetry, rotation and reflection as a mathematics of curves that records genealogy and story overhead.
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