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 French Formal Garden: Run one axis from the building center and mirror everything across it
- Type
- Set in French Formal Garden's manner (Inscriptions and statue titles sit on the axis, paired left and right), and let Parterre's lettering (Keep the arabesque one constant width, set its crossings first) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in French Formal Garden's material (Clip to a level line and use water as a mirror for the sky); bring in exactly one thing from Parterre (Clipped box as line, gravel, turf and sand as ground colors).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
- Both belong to Garden Styles, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- French Formal Garden Axis and symmetry get copied without designing the recession, and with no budget for the labor of clipping, the outlines slacken within a few years.
- Parterre Placed where nobody can look down on it, the pattern never reads and only expensive clipping remains, its point entirely lost.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from French Formal Garden (Style, 17th century–) and its accent from Parterre (Layout, 17th century–). Structural cues: Axes running to the vanishing point; Strict symmetry; Clipped geometry; Water mirrors and the grand canal. Accent cues, used sparingly: Box arabesques; Gravel and turf as ground colors; Made for the view from above; Symmetrical development. Composition: Run one axis from the building center and mirror everything across it. Type and lettering: Inscriptions and statue titles sit on the axis, paired left and right. Let one material quality come from the second style: Clipped box as line, gravel, turf and sand as ground colors. Mood: Luxury, Trust, Exhilaration, Calm, Play. 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
- French Formal Garden 17th century– / Style / Garden Styles
The garden of axis, symmetry and perspective that Le Nôtre perfected at Versailles. Shears and sheets of water discipline nature into geometry, and power becomes visible as spatial order.
- Parterre 17th century– / Layout / Garden Styles
A flat bed in which clipped box embroiders arabesques into the ground. It was designed to be looked down on from the floors above, turning the ground into ornament and gardening into graphic design.
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