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 Bauhaus: Treat shapes and letters as the same building blocks
Type
Set in Bauhaus's manner (Geometric sans-serif), and let Modernist Exhibition Design's lettering (Headlines scaled to the wall, body text only where visitors stop) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
Material
Ground in Bauhaus's material (Red, blue and yellow held together by black and off-white); bring in exactly one thing from Modernist Exhibition Design (Enlarged photographs, temporary metal or mesh frames, movable panels).
Colour
Build on #eee7d4, #df2c22, #153f8c and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.

Where they fight

These two are already listed as related, so the join should come easily.

Caution

  • Bauhaus Scattered shapes read as childish. Give every element a job.
  • Modernist Exhibition Design Borrowing tilted panels and giant photographs without fixing the order of movement breaks the argument, and the show ends as a busy room.

Image prompt

An original image that takes its structure from Bauhaus (Style, 1919–1933) and its accent from Modernist Exhibition Design (Style, 1920s–1940s). Structural cues: Elementary shapes; Primary colors; Functional beauty; Visible structure. Accent cues, used sparingly: Choreographed circulation; Tilted panels; Photography at giant scale; Compositions wrapping the field of view. Composition: Treat shapes and letters as the same building blocks. Type and lettering: Geometric sans-serif. Let one material quality come from the second style: Enlarged photographs, temporary metal or mesh frames, movable panels. Mood: Trust, Play, Technology, Exhilaration. Color: build on #eee7d4, #df2c22, #153f8c 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

  • Bauhaus 1919–1933 / Style / Functionalism

    Makes function and play coexist through the circle, triangle and square.

  • Modernist Exhibition Design 1920s–1940s / Style / Exhibition Design

    The modernist movement that designed the exhibition as printed matter you walk through. Lissitzky's dynamic installations and Bayer's extended field of vision invented display as an information space that edits the visitor's path and gaze.

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