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 African Barbershop Sign: Grid of equal frames with every face drawn at the same angle
- Type
- Set in African Barbershop Sign's manner (Number each cut and paint only the shop name large by hand), and let Ghost Signs's lettering (Redraw period shop lettering by hand, with shadowed letters and ornament rules) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in African Barbershop Sign's material (Enamel on plywood, few colors, black outlines holding it together); bring in exactly one thing from Ghost Signs (Brushed straight onto brick, assuming the least stable colors fade first).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
- Both belong to Signage and Display, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- African Barbershop Sign Individualizing the faces as portraits breaks the catalogue function, and customers can no longer use the board to order.
- Ghost Signs Applying an even wash of distress falsifies the direction of fading and the order of overpainting, and the intended age reads as fake.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from African Barbershop Sign (Style, 1950s–) and its accent from Ghost Signs (Style, 1880s–1950s / rediscovery). Structural cues: Grids of haircut samples; Flat repeated faces; Numbers and hand lettering; Enamel on plywood. Accent cues, used sparingly: Paint applied straight to brick; Fading and peeling; Craftsman lettering; Layers of overpainting. Composition: Grid of equal frames with every face drawn at the same angle. Type and lettering: Number each cut and paint only the shop name large by hand. Let one material quality come from the second style: Brushed straight onto brick, assuming the least stable colors fade first. Mood: Intimacy, Play, Trust, Nostalgia, Calm. 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
- African Barbershop Sign 1950s– / Style / Signage and Display
The hand-painted signboards of West African barbershops: numbered haircut samples in a grid, flat repeated faces sitting between product catalogue and portraiture.
- Ghost Signs 1880s–1950s / rediscovery / Style / Signage and Display
Hand-painted brick-wall advertisements faded by weather. The lettering of the craftsmen called wall dogs, through peeling and fading, is being rediscovered as a stratum of urban memory.
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