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 Skeleton Screen's lettering (Set no type at all. Where headings and body will go, lay blank fields matched to the real line height and measure) 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 Skeleton Screen (Use neutral fields one step away from the background. Match corner radius and size to the real elements and add no further colour).
- Colour
- Build on #e9f1e4, #ef6651, #3a68a8 and admit one accent from #FFFFFF, #E4E6EA, #F2F4F6.
Where they fight
- Flat Design / Vector Minimalism and Skeleton Screen both belong to UI Expression, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Flat Design / Vector Minimalism Figures easily become generic. Define your own ratios, lines and color rules.
- Skeleton Screen If the blank fields do not match the real content's dimensions, everything shifts the moment data lands, which reads worse than the spinner it replaced.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Flat Design / Vector Minimalism (style, 2010s–) and their accent from Skeleton Screen (technique, 2013–). ## 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 Skeleton Screen, used sparingly - No spinner and no progress bar while the screen loads - Blank fields already standing where text and images will land, at the size they will occupy - A layout committed before the data arrives, so nothing shifts when it does - Regions filling in one after another instead of the whole screen appearing at once Let one material quality come from it: Use neutral fields one step away from the background. Match corner radius and size to the real elements and add no further colour. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #e9f1e4, carry the structure in #ef6651 and #3a68a8, and let a single accent come from #F2F4F6. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: trust, intimacy, play, technique, calm. ## Where they fight - Flat Design / Vector Minimalism and Skeleton Screen both belong to UI Expression, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - Flat Design / Vector Minimalism: Figures easily become generic. Define your own ratios, lines and color rules. - Skeleton Screen: If the blank fields do not match the real content's dimensions, everything shifts the moment data lands, which reads worse than the spinner it replaced. ## 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.
- Skeleton Screen 2013– / Technique / UI Expression
A loading treatment that drops the spinner and shows a blank version of the page instead, then fills information into it as the data arrives. Luke Wroblewski named the technique in 2013, writing about his own app Polar, where a spinner had made testers report that the app felt slower than the previous version. The aim is to show advance toward the goal rather than the act of waiting.
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