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 Flat Design / Vector Minimalism: Simple silhouettes and clear hierarchy
- Type
- Set in Flat Design / Vector Minimalism's manner (A rounded sans-serif), and let Metro's lettering (Headings five times body size, kept in a light weight) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Flat Design / Vector Minimalism's material (Three to five colors; shadows only when they mean something); bring in exactly one thing from Metro (No shadows or borders, black or white ground, saturated flat panels).
- Colour
- Build on #e9f1e4, #ef6651, #3a68a8 and admit one accent from #ffffff, #ffc211, #131314.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Flat Design / Vector Minimalism Figures easily become generic. Define your own ratios, lines and color rules.
- Metro Stripping every border and shadow erases the difference between a tappable tile and a plain heading, leaving people guessing where to touch.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Flat Design / Vector Minimalism (style, 2010s–) and their accent from Metro (style, 2010–2015). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Flat Design / Vector Minimalism exists for: light, understandable explanation, or large sets of consistent figures. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Flat Design / Vector Minimalism - Uniform planes - Simple shapes - Few shadows - Clear color Composition: Simple silhouettes and clear hierarchy. Type and lettering: A rounded sans-serif. ## Accent comes from Metro, used sparingly - Type as the hero - Flat-color tiles - Compositions running off-screen - Chrome eliminated Let one material quality come from it: No shadows or borders, black or white ground, saturated flat panels. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #e9f1e4, carry the structure in #ef6651 and #3a68a8, and let a single accent come from #ffc211. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: trust, intimacy, play, technique, rebellion. ## What goes wrong - Flat Design / Vector Minimalism: Figures easily become generic. Define your own ratios, lines and color rules. - Metro: Stripping every border and shadow erases the difference between a tappable tile and a plain heading, leaving people guessing where to touch. ## 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
- Flat Design / Vector Minimalism 2010s– / Style / UI Expression
Reduces information to plain planes and color, portable across screens and media.
- Metro 2010–2015 / Style / Microsoft UI
Windows Phone's flat language, which cast type rather than icons in the lead role. Large typography, flat-color live tiles and layouts that run off the edge of the screen transplanted the clarity of transit signage into UI, opening the flat era ahead of iOS 7.
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