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 Fileteado Porteño: Frames built symmetrically about a center line, corners closed by scrolls
- Type
- Set in Fileteado Porteño's manner (Letters given solid shading and white highlights, drawn with the ornament brush), and let Ghost Signs's lettering (Redraw period shop lettering by hand, with shadowed letters and ornament rules) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Fileteado Porteño's material (Enamel pulled with a single brush, gold lines over blue and red); bring in exactly one thing from Ghost Signs (Brushed straight onto brick, assuming the least stable colors fade first).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
- Both belong to Signage and Display, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Fileteado Porteño Pasting scrollwork from a clip library never gives the tension of a pulled brushline, and the letters end up floating apart from the ornament.
- Ghost Signs Applying an even wash of distress falsifies the direction of fading and the order of overpainting, and the intended age reads as fake.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Fileteado Porteño (Technique, 1900s–) and its accent from Ghost Signs (Style, 1880s–1950s / rediscovery). Structural cues: Swirling acanthus and ribbons; Heavily shaded ornamental letters; Symmetrical framing; Traditional blue, gold and red. Accent cues, used sparingly: Paint applied straight to brick; Fading and peeling; Craftsman lettering; Layers of overpainting. Composition: Frames built symmetrically about a center line, corners closed by scrolls. Type and lettering: Letters given solid shading and white highlights, drawn with the ornament brush. Let one material quality come from the second style: Brushed straight onto brick, assuming the least stable colors fade first. Mood: Exhilaration, Nostalgia, Play, Intimacy, 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
- Fileteado Porteño 1900s– / Technique / Signage and Display
Buenos Aires's decorative linework grew out of cart painting and shop signs. Swirling acanthus, ribbons, flowers and heavily shaded letters work as a single system in this urban brush craft, now inscribed by UNESCO.
- Ghost Signs 1880s–1950s / rediscovery / Style / Signage and Display
Hand-painted brick-wall advertisements faded by weather. The lettering of the craftsmen called wall dogs, through peeling and fading, is being rediscovered as a stratum of urban memory.
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