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 ANSI Art (BBS Scene): Eighty columns respected while the vertical runs on like a scroll
- Type
- Set in ANSI Art (BBS Scene)'s manner (Letterforms built from block characters and completed with box-drawing pieces), and let Teletext Art's lettering (One monospaced face only, hierarchy from double-height headings) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in ANSI Art (BBS Scene)'s material (Sixteen foreground and eight background colors, shading made by character density); bring in exactly one thing from Teletext Art (Eight-color block mosaic, dithering faking intermediate tones).
- Colour
- Build on #aaaaaa, #5555ff, #050203 and admit one accent from #f0edec, #1ef1f9, #040404.
Where they fight
- ANSI Art (BBS Scene) and Teletext Art both belong to Lettering, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- ANSI Art (BBS Scene) Shown in a proportional environment the columns break and the picture is gone, so building without fixing display conditions destroys it.
- Teletext Art Raising the resolution to smooth the drawing removes the necessity behind the coarseness and leaves a merely retro-looking picture.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from ANSI Art (BBS Scene) (style, 1985–1997) and their accent from Teletext Art (style, 1974–2012 / revival). ## What to make Make the kind of thing ANSI Art (BBS Scene) exists for: decorating a splash screen or heading where only characters are available, or bringing signature and crew credit into a distributed pack of work. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from ANSI Art (BBS Scene) - 16-color text mode - Shaded block characters - Art-group signatures - The login-screen format Composition: Eighty columns respected while the vertical runs on like a scroll. Type and lettering: Letterforms built from block characters and completed with box-drawing pieces. ## Accent comes from Teletext Art, used sparingly - Eight-color mosaic - The 40x24 frame - Pseudo-curves from blocks - The look of broadcast infrastructure Let one material quality come from it: Eight-color block mosaic, dithering faking intermediate tones. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #aaaaaa, carry the structure in #5555ff and #050203, and let a single accent come from #1ef1f9. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: rebellion, technique, nostalgia, play. ## Where they fight - ANSI Art (BBS Scene) and Teletext Art both belong to Lettering, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - ANSI Art (BBS Scene): Shown in a proportional environment the columns break and the picture is gone, so building without fixing display conditions destroys it. - Teletext Art: Raising the resolution to smooth the drawing removes the necessity behind the coarseness and leaves a merely retro-looking picture. ## 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
- ANSI Art (BBS Scene) 1985–1997 / Style / Lettering
Login screens and group art packs drawn in the 16-color text mode of the BBS age. Block-character shading and inter-group competition made the summit of pre-web screen decoration.
- Teletext Art 1974–2012 / revival / Style / Lettering
Screen art made inside broadcast text, a mosaic of 40 by 24 characters in eight fixed colors. The extreme abstraction of Ceefax weather maps and news pages is being revived now as a classic of constraint.
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