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 Deconstructivism: Collide multiple grids
- Type
- Set in Deconstructivism's manner (Sever, duplicate and rotate the letters), and let Emigre's lettering (Pixel stepping enlarged, not smoothed, several unlike faces on a page) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Deconstructivism's material (Translucent layers, cut surfaces, noise); bring in exactly one thing from Emigre (Screen coarseness carried into print, paper white treated as glow).
- Colour
- Build on #dedbd3, #ff4e28, #29273e and admit one accent from #ece8d4, #e8cb3b, #242120.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Deconstructivism Too heavy a cognitive load for interfaces. Keep experiments to heroes and set pieces.
- Emigre Making difficulty the goal drains away the argument that once made it an experiment, leaving only a page where information fails to arrive.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Deconstructivism (style, 1980s–) and their accent from Emigre (style, 1984–2005). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Deconstructivism exists for: communicating change or rupture itself, or strong concepts in fashion and architecture. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Deconstructivism - Fragmentation - Tilt - Colliding layers - Unstable contours Composition: Collide multiple grids. Type and lettering: Sever, duplicate and rotate the letters. ## Accent comes from Emigre, used sparingly - Bitmap typefaces - Colliding layers - An experiment per issue - Challenges to readability Let one material quality come from it: Screen coarseness carried into print, paper white treated as glow. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #dedbd3, carry the structure in #ff4e28 and #29273e, and let a single accent come from #e8cb3b. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: rebellion, futurity, technique, play. ## What goes wrong - Deconstructivism: Too heavy a cognitive load for interfaces. Keep experiments to heroes and set pieces. - Emigre: Making difficulty the goal drains away the argument that once made it an experiment, leaving only a page where information fails to arrive. ## 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
- Deconstructivism 1980s– / Style / Avant-garde
Dismantles an achieved order and makes tension and instability the new structure.
- Emigre 1984–2005 / Style / Type Classification
The magazine and foundry that turned digital coarseness into an aesthetic the moment the Mac appeared: bitmap faces, colliding layers and a defense of difficulty at the center of the 1990s design debates.
Share this composition:https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=deconstructivism+emigre