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 Didone: Nearly symmetrical composition with deep top and bottom margins stressing the horizontal
- Type
- Set in Didone's manner (Set large with a touch of tracking, never small enough to lose hairlines), and let Fat Face's lettering (One or two words filling the sheet, spaced as tight as they will go) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Didone's material (Black or one color on white stock, foil or letterpress keeping edges crisp); bring in exactly one thing from Fat Face (Cheap stock, black alone or black and red, ink scuff left showing).
- Colour
- Build on #f2efe9, #b3a58c, #141210 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
- Didone and Fat Face share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over.
- Both belong to Type Classification, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Didone At text sizes or on coarse screens the hairlines vanish, and what was elegance becomes a headline that is simply hard to read.
- Fat Face At small sizes the hairline horizontals disappear and the letters collapse into thick blocks that can no longer be told apart.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Didone (Style, late 18th century–) and its accent from Fat Face (Style, c. 1803–). Structural cues: Extreme contrast; Vertical stress; Hairline serifs; Mathematical construction. Accent cues, used sparingly: Swollen stems; Hairline horizontals; Tight spacing; Poster scale. Composition: Nearly symmetrical composition with deep top and bottom margins stressing the horizontal. Type and lettering: Set large with a touch of tracking, never small enough to lose hairlines. Let one material quality come from the second style: Cheap stock, black alone or black and red, ink scuff left showing. Mood: Luxury, Calm, Exhilaration, Play. Color: build on #f2efe9, #b3a58c, #141210 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
- Didone late 18th century– / Style / Type Classification
A constructed roman that pushes the contrast of hairline and thick vertical stem to its limit, standing at once as the terminus of the Age of Reason and as a sign of luxury.
- Fat Face c. 1803– / Style / Type Classification
Advertising swelled the didone's stems to extremes. The result was the earliest display type, built to shout across the street.
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