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 Googie: Sweep the roof up on one side and glaze the corner facing traffic.
Type
Set in Googie's manner (Build the leaning script in neon and push it above the roofline.), and let Space Age Design's lettering (Choose a rounded geometric sans and match its curves to the shells.) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
Material
Ground in Googie's material (Neon tubing, polished stone and tile, thin steel columns set at angles.); bring in exactly one thing from Space Age Design (Molded plastic, foam, glowing milky panels, saturated single color paint.).
Colour
Build on #f0dfb5, #de5d3c, #3d83a6 and admit one accent from #eee9df, #eb5b3e, #5179a5.

Where they fight

These two are already listed as related, so the join should come easily.

Caution

  • Googie This is commercial architecture exaggerated for car culture and visibility, not a pile of space-age motifs, and copying the shapes while underlighting the night leaves it loud by day and dark after dark.
  • Space Age Design Curves and vivid color alone read as cheap plastic, so unless mold seams and paint gloss are controlled the result looks like a toy.

Image prompt

An original image that takes its structure from Googie (Style, late-1940s–1960s) and its accent from Space Age Design (Style, 1957–early 1970s). Structural cues: Upswept roofs; Giant neon; Boomerang shapes; Full glazing. Accent cues, used sparingly: Capsule forms; Molded plastic; Spheres; Vivid synthetic color. Composition: Sweep the roof up on one side and glaze the corner facing traffic.. Type and lettering: Build the leaning script in neon and push it above the roofline.. Let one material quality come from the second style: Molded plastic, foam, glowing milky panels, saturated single color paint.. Mood: Exhilaration, Play, Futurism. Color: build on #f0dfb5, #de5d3c, #3d83a6 with a single accent drawn from #eee9df, #eb5b3e, #5179a5. 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

  • Googie late-1940s–1960s / Style / Modern Architecture

    Theatricalizes roadside commerce with exaggerated roofs, neon, glass and space-age shapes readable in an instant from a car.

  • Space Age Design 1957–early 1970s / Style / Postwar Industrial Design

    Translates the hopes of the space race into capsule forms, spheres, molded plastic, vivid color and lightweight furniture.

Share this pairing:
https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=googie+space-age-design

Back to index position