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 Chicano Art: The sacred figure at the centre, with people and labour running around it as a band
- Type
- Set in Chicano Art's manner (Hand drawn brush script or blackletter for headings, English and Spanish at the same size), and let OSPAAAL Poster's lettering (Arrange three languages around one image without shrinking any of them.) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Chicano Art's material (Four screens at most, outlines on a black plate, printed cheap for paper or wall); bring in exactly one thing from OSPAAAL Poster (Few screen colors, thin paper, folded flat enough to travel by post.).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #f2cf37, #de3b31, #243a66.
Where they fight
- Both belong to Printmaking and Social Movements, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Chicano Art Lifting the lettering and the saints as decoration: the imagery belongs to a specific movement and community, and taken away from that it reads as costume.
- OSPAAAL Poster Do not consume revolutionary aesthetics as decoration, and name whose solidarity with which movement appeared in which medium. Stacking too many symbols keeps the meaning from reaching a distant reader at a glance.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Chicano Art (Style, 1965–) and its accent from OSPAAAL Poster (Style, 1966–1990s). Structural cues: The narrative composition of the mural; Aztec and Catholic imagery placed side by side; Bilingual lettering; The strong flat colour of silkscreen. Accent cues, used sparingly: Blazing flat color; Multiple languages; Symbolic iconography; International solidarity. Composition: The sacred figure at the centre, with people and labour running around it as a band. Type and lettering: Hand drawn brush script or blackletter for headings, English and Spanish at the same size. Let one material quality come from the second style: Few screen colors, thin paper, folded flat enough to travel by post.. Mood: Rebellion, Intimacy, Exhilaration, Trust. Color: build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 with a single accent drawn from #f2cf37, #de3b31, #243a66. 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
- Chicano Art 1965– / Style / Printmaking and Social Movements
An expression born out of the Mexican American civil rights movement. Murals, silkscreened posters, lowriders and lettering form one continuous vocabulary, and Aztec imagery, Catholic devotional figures and mixed English-Spanish lettering share a single surface. A case in which a movement produced a style.
- OSPAAAL Poster 1966–1990s / Style / Printmaking and Social Movements
Carries transnational solidarity with anti-colonial liberation movements through flat color, photography, iconography and short multilingual text.
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