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 Hurufiyya: Do not contain writing in a decorative strip; repeat or break it across the main structure of grid, field, body and void
- Type
- Set in Hurufiyya's manner (Verify the letter, word, dialect and writer, and state where reading ends and formal transformation begins), and let Kufic's lettering (Fix the ratio of upright to horizontal first, and turn every corner at a right angle) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Hurufiyya's material (Preserve resistance specific to ink, oil, paper or metal and do not substitute randomly rotated fonts for a physical hand); bring in exactly one thing from Kufic (Cut into stone, brick and tile, and on parchment hold the stroke to an even weight with the reed pen).
- Colour
- Build on #E6D7B8, #2A2B35, #A74432 and admit one accent from #ddd0b2, #3b5398, #3f3028.
Where they fight
- Hurufiyya and Kufic stand roughly 1200 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Hurufiyya Arabic-looking signs used as exotic pattern erase both meaning and lineage. Distinguish the movement from traditional calligraphy and name maker, region, language and modern context.
- Kufic Copying only the right angles while breaking the joins between letters leaves an ornamental band that no longer reads as a word.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Hurufiyya (style, mid-20th century–) and their accent from Kufic (style, 8th century onward). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Hurufiyya exists for: treating language, displacement and belonging as tension between readable text and abstraction, or using Arabic script as the structure that carries both meaning and form rather than as scenery. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Hurufiyya - Repeated single Arabic letters or partly unreadable fragments - Writing embedded in grids, spirals, color fields or figures - Hand pressure coexisting with modern abstract composition - Deliberate switching between legibility and pure form Composition: Do not contain writing in a decorative strip; repeat or break it across the main structure of grid, field, body and void. Type and lettering: Verify the letter, word, dialect and writer, and state where reading ends and formal transformation begins. ## Accent comes from Kufic, used sparingly - Horizontals drawn long - Short angular uprights - Letters turning at right angles - Lines massed into an even band Let one material quality come from it: Cut into stone, brick and tile, and on parchment hold the stroke to an even weight with the reed pen. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #E6D7B8, carry the structure in #A74432 and #2A2B35, and let a single accent come from #3b5398. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: rebellion, luxury, trust, calm. ## Where they fight - Hurufiyya and Kufic stand roughly 1200 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle. ## What goes wrong - Hurufiyya: Arabic-looking signs used as exotic pattern erase both meaning and lineage. Distinguish the movement from traditional calligraphy and name maker, region, language and modern context. - Kufic: Copying only the right angles while breaking the joins between letters leaves an ornamental band that no longer reads as a word. ## 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
- Hurufiyya mid-20th century– / Style / Modern and Contemporary Art Movements
From the mid-twentieth century, Hurufiyya transformed Arabic words, fragments and individual letters into elements of modern painting, sculpture and graphic composition rather than reproducing traditional calligraphy. Letters move among meaning, bodily mark, cultural identity and abstract form.
- Kufic 8th century onward / Style / Calligraphic Traditions
Keeps the uprights short and draws the horizontals long, massing letters of straight strokes and right angles into a band of even height.
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