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 Brussels Style: Compose off center and run diagonal movement through the white space
- Type
- Set in Brussels Style's manner (Light hand-drawn sans headlines, set at a tilt), and let East German Design's lettering (Plain medium-weight sans, small, gathered in one place) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Brussels Style's material (Pastel fields with fine black line, splayed legs and atom motifs); bring in exactly one thing from East German Design (Molded plastic in primary hues, few inks on rough paper).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
- Brussels Style and East German Design share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over.
Caution
- Brussels Style Pasting on atom motifs and thin legs leaves it indistinguishable from Western mid-century modern, and the thaw era brightness never arrives.
- East German Design Using a simplicity born of shortage as a nostalgia sign drops the constraint that made it, leaving a souvenir that copies only the colors.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Brussels Style (Style, 1958–1960s) and its accent from East German Design (Style, 1949–1990). Structural cues: Asymmetric organic curves; Thin splayed legs; Atom and star patterns; Pastel against black. Accent cues, used sparingly: Simplicity bred by constraint; Artless state advertising; Plastic color; Lyrical film posters. Composition: Compose off center and run diagonal movement through the white space. Type and lettering: Light hand-drawn sans headlines, set at a tilt. Let one material quality come from the second style: Molded plastic in primary hues, few inks on rough paper. Mood: Futurism, Play, Exhilaration, Nostalgia, Trust, 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
- Brussels Style 1958–1960s / Style / Postwar Industrial Design
The bright socialist-bloc modernism named for Czechoslovakia's triumph at Expo 58: asymmetric curves, thin splayed legs and atomic patterns spreading thaw-era optimism from housewares to animation.
- East German Design 1949–1990 / Style / Regional Graphics
The everyday design of the GDR under a planned economy. Plain plastic goods born of shortage, the artless graphics of state advertising and the lyricism of DEFA film posters are now being reappraised as the style of a vanished state.
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