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 Gen X Soft Club: Float elements at low contrast
- Type
- Set in Gen X Soft Club's manner (Thin extended or monospace faces), and let The Face's lettering (Draw the headline weight from geometry as extra bold, and hold the text in a small sans) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Gen X Soft Club's material (Blue, green, black, lens blur); bring in exactly one thing from The Face (Keep a set of section marks that change shape each issue, working in black areas and reversed white).
- Colour
- Build on #071e2b, #268d95, #79c7b7 and admit one accent from #f2eee5, #b9a58f, #161513.
Where they fight
- Gen X Soft Club and The Face share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over.
Caution
- Gen X Soft Club Blur alone erases the contours. Keep the title or a structural line hard.
- The Face When redrawing the letterforms every issue becomes the aim in itself, the marks stop working as signposts for the reader and every issue looks equally loud.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Gen X Soft Club (style, late 1990s) and their accent from The Face (style, 1980s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Gen X Soft Club exists for: nocturnal softness for music and fashion, or A calmer retro-future than Y2K. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Gen X Soft Club - Teal - Blurred light - Translucency - Abstract 3D Composition: Float elements at low contrast. Type and lettering: Thin extended or monospace faces. ## Accent comes from The Face, used sparingly - Extra bold headline letters drawn on geometry - Heavy rules and black bars dividing the page - Section marks that change shape issue by issue - Large type laid over the photograph Let one material quality come from it: Keep a set of section marks that change shape each issue, working in black areas and reversed white. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #79c7b7, carry the structure in #268d95 and #071e2b, and let a single accent come from #b9a58f. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: futurity, nostalgia, exhilaration, luxury, calm. ## Where they fight - Gen X Soft Club and The Face share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over. ## What goes wrong - Gen X Soft Club: Blur alone erases the contours. Keep the title or a structural line hard. - The Face: When redrawing the letterforms every issue becomes the aim in itself, the marks stop working as signposts for the reader and every issue looks equally loud. ## 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
- Gen X Soft Club late 1990s / Style / Digital Retro
Paints vague hope for the future in the teal glow bleeding through club darkness.
- The Face 1980s / Style / Publishing and Editing
Redraws its headline letters and section marks issue by issue, then sets them into a page of heavy rules and black bars with the same weight as the photographs.
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