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 Fluent 2: Fix spacing to multiples of one base and keep density variants as separate tokens
- Type
- Set in Fluent 2's manner (Define size and leading as tokens and never hardcode values in a screen), and let Material Design's lettering (Build the hierarchy from one type family and separate levels by weight and size) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Fluent 2's material (Mica for the window ground, Acrylic only for surfaces that appear briefly); bring in exactly one thing from Material Design (Give surfaces elevation and show front and back by the density of the shadow).
- Colour
- Build on #f1f3f5, #6b8eaa, #242a31 and admit one accent from #dfd5ec, #6a5996, #020202.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Fluent 2 Match blur and shadow to surface role, window state and light, dark and high contrast. Adding one off colors and paddings per screen turns the unifying system into one more thing to maintain.
- Material Design Do not add shadow as decoration. The moment the elevation rules break, the hierarchy is telling a lie.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Fluent 2 (style, 2022–) and their accent from Material Design (style, 2014–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Fluent 2 exists for: business UI at home in Windows and Microsoft 365 that several teams must keep identical, or replacing an existing product in stages so theme and state stay consistent across products. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Fluent 2 - Mica and Acrylic - Neutral tonal hierarchy - Soft corner radii - Tokenized depth Composition: Fix spacing to multiples of one base and keep density variants as separate tokens. Type and lettering: Define size and leading as tokens and never hardcode values in a screen. ## Accent comes from Material Design, used sparingly - Hierarchy and shadow expressed by elevation - Surfaces overlapping like sheets of paper - Motion that shows cause and effect - A standardized unit of spacing Let one material quality come from it: Give surfaces elevation and show front and back by the density of the shadow. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #f1f3f5, carry the structure in #6b8eaa and #242a31, and let a single accent come from #6a5996. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: trust, technique, calm, play. ## What goes wrong - Fluent 2: Match blur and shadow to surface role, window state and light, dark and high contrast. Adding one off colors and paddings per screen turns the unifying system into one more thing to maintain. - Material Design: Do not add shadow as decoration. The moment the elevation rules break, the hierarchy is telling a lie. ## 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
- Fluent 2 2022– / Style / Microsoft UI
Tokenizes color, type, spacing, radius and depth, deploying Solid, Acrylic, Mica and Smoke materials by role across Microsoft products.
- Material Design 2014– / Style / Google UI
A design system that reduces the physical metaphor of paper and ink to rules of shadow and overlap. Elements are given elevation, shadow states the hierarchy, and motion carries physical cause and effect. It became the model for UI design being distributed as a system. The 2021 revision added colour derived from the device wallpaper, so the palette differs from one user to the next.
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