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 Bauhaus: Treat shapes and letters as the same building blocks
- Type
- Set in Bauhaus's manner (Geometric sans-serif), and let New Vision Photography's lettering (Align added lettering to the picture diagonal, off the horizontal) 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 New Vision Photography (Hard direct light, strong shadow, black and white with the blacks closed).
- Colour
- Build on #eee7d4, #df2c22, #153f8c and admit one accent from #e5e3dc, #8b8f92, #151719.
Where they fight
- Bauhaus and New Vision Photography share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over.
Caution
- Bauhaus Scattered shapes read as childish. Give every element a job.
- New Vision Photography If the angle changes but reveals nothing about the subject, the picture becomes a shape nobody can name and the surprise is spent at first glance.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Bauhaus (style, 1919–1933) and their accent from New Vision Photography (style, 1920s–1930s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Bauhaus exists for: giving an idea a clear, legible form, or bringing intelligence and warmth to education and culture. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Bauhaus - Elementary shapes - Primary colors - Functional beauty - Visible structure Composition: Treat shapes and letters as the same building blocks. Type and lettering: Geometric sans-serif. ## Accent comes from New Vision Photography, used sparingly - Steep angles - Close-up - Hard light and shadow - Abstraction Let one material quality come from it: Hard direct light, strong shadow, black and white with the blacks closed. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #eee7d4, carry the structure in #df2c22 and #153f8c, and let a single accent come from #8b8f92. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: trust, play, technique, futurity, exhilaration. ## Where they fight - Bauhaus and New Vision Photography share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over. ## What goes wrong - Bauhaus: Scattered shapes read as childish. Give every element a job. - New Vision Photography: If the angle changes but reveals nothing about the subject, the picture becomes a shape nobody can name and the surprise is spent at first glance. ## 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
- Bauhaus 1919–1933 / Style / Functionalism
Makes function and play coexist through the circle, triangle and square.
- New Vision Photography 1920s–1930s / Style / Photography Movements
Looks for perception only a camera can produce, using views from far above and far below, extreme close-ups and experiments with light.
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