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 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 #f7f4ec, #a2916f, #0d0b09.
Where they fight
- Didone and Fat Face share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over.
- Didone and Fat Face 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
Produce four original images that take their structure from Didone (style, late 18th century–) and their accent from Fat Face (style, c. 1803–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Didone exists for: fashion covers and headlines set large enough to carry an air of rank, or cosmetic and jewellery packaging where a few words are placed quietly. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Didone - Extreme contrast - Vertical stress - Hairline serifs - Mathematical construction 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. ## Accent comes from Fat Face, used sparingly - Swollen stems - Hairline horizontals - Tight spacing - Poster scale Let one material quality come from it: Cheap stock, black alone or black and red, ink scuff left showing. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #f2efe9, carry the structure in #b3a58c and #141210, and let a single accent come from #a2916f. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: luxury, calm, exhilaration, play. ## Where they fight - Didone and Fat Face share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over. - Didone and Fat Face both belong to Type Classification, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - 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. ## 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
- 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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