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 Flowchart: Main path down one column, branches right and always rejoining
- Type
- Set in Flowchart's manner (A question inside every diamond, a verb first sentence in rectangles), and let Proofreading Marks's lettering (Corrections in red and queries in pencil, one color per person) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Flowchart's material (Each branch labeled with its answer, terminals only at both ends); bring in exactly one thing from Proofreading Marks (Proofs printed at full size with margins wide enough to write in).
- Colour
- Build on #ffffff, #86b11d, #40591e and admit one accent from #e5c7bc, #558386, #54342d.
Where they fight
- Flowchart and Proofreading Marks stand roughly 371 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Flowchart Mixing diamonds and rectangles without respecting their meanings erases the line between decision and process, and readers guess.
- Proofreading Marks Corrections written as prose instead of marks leave the extent of each change open to reading, and every pass introduces fresh errors.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Flowchart (layout, 1921–) and their accent from Proofreading Marks (technique, 16th century–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Flowchart exists for: getting a team to agree on a work procedure that branches, or surfacing branches and exceptions in a spec before implementation. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Flowchart - A grammar of shapes - The decision diamond - Arrows of flow - Start and end terminals Composition: Main path down one column, branches right and always rejoining. Type and lettering: A question inside every diamond, a verb first sentence in rectangles. ## Accent comes from Proofreading Marks, used sparingly - Lines pairing text and margin - Deletion and restoration exchanges - Insertion and transposition signs - The hierarchy of red Let one material quality come from it: Proofs printed at full size with margins wide enough to write in. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #ffffff, carry the structure in #86b11d and #40591e, and let a single accent come from #558386. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: technique, trust, play, intimacy. ## Where they fight - Flowchart and Proofreading Marks stand roughly 371 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle. ## What goes wrong - Flowchart: Mixing diamonds and rectangles without respecting their meanings erases the line between decision and process, and readers guess. - Proofreading Marks: Corrections written as prose instead of marks leave the extent of each change open to reading, and every pass introduces fresh errors. ## 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
- Flowchart 1921– / Layout / Diagrammatic Expression
The Gilbreths invented this process diagram for work analysis. Its grammar of shapes gives a diamond to every decision and a rectangle to every process, and by way of programming it became the common language for thinking in steps.
- Proofreading Marks 16th century– / Technique / Symbol Systems
A sign language that corrects a typeset page through dialogue with its margins. The back-and-forth of deletion and stet, and the Western dele, were refined alongside the history of printing into an editing protocol that stands behind every typeset work, this dictionary included.
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