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 Braille: Set below or beside the print, with room for a finger to travel
- Type
- Set in Braille's manner (Dot diameter and spacing follow the standard, never adjusted for looks), and let i-mode Emoji's lettering (Built from masses of dots rather than lines, sized to sit inline at the height of the text) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Braille's material (Materials that hold dot height, no coating that rounds the domes); bring in exactly one thing from i-mode Emoji (Faces, weather and things held at one coarseness, dots reduced to the limit where they still read apart).
- Colour
- Build on #fefddc, #8f9ead, #28211b and admit one accent from #fcfdfc, #ffdd67, #4c3526.
Where they fight
- Braille and i-mode Emoji both belong to Symbol Systems, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
- Braille and i-mode Emoji stand roughly 174 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Braille Shrinking or tightening the dots to tidy the look drops them below the resolution of a fingertip, and nobody can read them.
- i-mode Emoji Chasing fine detail inside the grid clogs the dots, and at the size of the text the figure no longer says what it is.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Braille (style, 1824–) and their accent from i-mode Emoji (style, 1998-1999). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Braille exists for: adding touch readable text beside signage and wayfinding panels, or giving print or packaging an identifier that does not rely on sight. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Braille - The 2x3 dot cell - Dimensions fit to the fingertip - Left-to-right tactile reading - The materiality of embossing Composition: Set below or beside the print, with room for a finger to travel. Type and lettering: Dot diameter and spacing follow the standard, never adjusted for looks. ## Accent comes from i-mode Emoji, used sparingly - Figures fitted to a twelve by twelve grid - Shapes made of mass rather than of line - Set inline at the size of a letter - Faces, weather and symbols at one coarseness Let one material quality come from it: Faces, weather and things held at one coarseness, dots reduced to the limit where they still read apart. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #fefddc, carry the structure in #8f9ead and #28211b, and let a single accent come from #ffdd67. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: trust, intimacy, technique, play. ## Where they fight - Braille and i-mode Emoji both belong to Symbol Systems, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. - Braille and i-mode Emoji stand roughly 174 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle. ## What goes wrong - Braille: Shrinking or tightening the dots to tidy the look drops them below the resolution of a fingertip, and nobody can read them. - i-mode Emoji: Chasing fine detail inside the grid clogs the dots, and at the size of the text the figure no longer says what it is. ## 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
- Braille 1824– / Style / Symbol Systems
A tactile writing system Louis Braille designed at fifteen, giving every letter a two-by-three cell of dots. Sizing that cell to a single fingertip is a rare case of ergonomics and typography arriving at the same answer.
- i-mode Emoji 1998-1999 / Style / Symbol Systems
One hundred and seventy six pictographs that tell faces, weather and things apart using only the placement of dots on a twelve by twelve grid. Shigetaka Kurita drew them for NTT DOCOMO's i-mode, and MoMA holds the original set.
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