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 FUI (Fantasy User Interface): Decide the one thing to be read first and aim the light and the motion at it. Fill the rest with density that carries no meaning.
Type
Set in FUI (Fantasy User Interface)'s manner (Lead with monospace and let most of the text act as texture. Only the word that must be read changes size and brightness.), and let Metalheart's lettering (Extrude the letters, bevel them deep, and bake in mirror reflections) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
Material
Ground in FUI (Fantasy User Interface)'s material (One or two luminous colours on black, thin strokes, almost no fill. Pull the brightness down so the screen sits inside the photographed shot.); bring in exactly one thing from Metalheart (Chrome, liquid metal, lens flare, reflections carrying surrounding color).
Colour
Build on #000000, #4FE3FF, #FF6A00 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.

Where they fight

  • Both belong to UI Expression, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.

Caution

  • FUI (Fantasy User Interface) Trying to make the screen genuinely operable thins out the density and scatters the information, and it stops being readable in the length of the performance.
  • Metalheart Polishing it clean in current software removes the rawness that came from the crude renderers of the time, and it becomes something else.

Image prompt

An original image that takes its structure from FUI (Fantasy User Interface) (Style, 1997–) and its accent from Metalheart (Style, 1995–2004). Structural cues: One thing per screen that the audience is meant to read, with everything else present as density; Columns of monospaced figures updating continuously while computing nothing; Thin luminous lines on black, with shapes drawn as outlines and almost no fill; Frames and controls that look like plausible equipment rather than pure abstraction. Accent cues, used sparingly: Liquid-metal chrome; Aggressive bevels; Lens flares; Techno and sci-fi typography. Composition: Decide the one thing to be read first and aim the light and the motion at it. Fill the rest with density that carries no meaning.. Type and lettering: Lead with monospace and let most of the text act as texture. Only the word that must be read changes size and brightness.. Let one material quality come from the second style: Chrome, liquid metal, lens flare, reflections carrying surrounding color. Mood: Futurism, Technology, Exhilaration, Rebellion. Color: build on #000000, #4FE3FF, #FF6A00 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

  • FUI (Fantasy User Interface) 1997– / Style / UI Expression

    The name that stuck to the craft of making the screens that appear inside films. It spread around the work of Mark Coleran, who says he is given credit for the term without being sure he can take it, and who describes these screens as illustration and a storytelling device that was never designed to be used. He works with light, shape, form, movement and sound so that each film screen has one thing the audience is meant to read.

  • Metalheart 1995–2004 / Style / UI Expression

    Early 3D software gave this fin-de-millénaire style its chrome, liquid metal, aggressive bevels and lens flare. Dressed in techno and science-fiction imagery, it ruled rave flyers and games magazines around Y2K.

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