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 ITC Style: The headline massed into a few lines, leading closed to make one shape
- Type
- Set in ITC Style's manner (A large x-height face packed tight, with ligatures and swashes worked in), and let Push Pin Style's lettering (Display faces from the same period as the image, curved to its edge) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in ITC Style's material (Printed as flat color on glossy stock that tightens the letter edges); bring in exactly one thing from Push Pin Style (Flat fields of muted secondary color inside heavy contours).
- Colour
- Build on #f1eedc, #2e89c4, #0a0908 and admit one accent from #f1f3ed, #05b3e0, #252629.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- ITC Style Tracking pushed until the letters touch turns the line into pattern rather than reading and the headline stops working.
- Push Pin Style Choosing a historical style without the wit that justifies it turns quotation into plain nostalgia and makes the eclecticism look like a pile.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from ITC Style (style, 1970s–1980s) and their accent from Push Pin Style (style, 1954–1980s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing ITC Style exists for: magazine feature openers where the headline itself must stand as an image, or cosmetics and music advertising giving the shape of a word gloss and lift. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from ITC Style - Huge x-heights - Tight-not-touching settings - Swashes and ligatures on stage - Letters as image Composition: The headline massed into a few lines, leading closed to make one shape. Type and lettering: A large x-height face packed tight, with ligatures and swashes worked in. ## Accent comes from Push Pin Style, used sparingly - Eclectic historical revival - Fat contours, ornamental color - Illustration-led composition - Wit and quotation Let one material quality come from it: Flat fields of muted secondary color inside heavy contours. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #f1eedc, carry the structure in #2e89c4 and #0a0908, and let a single accent come from #05b3e0. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: exhilaration, play, luxury, nostalgia. ## What goes wrong - ITC Style: Tracking pushed until the letters touch turns the line into pattern rather than reading and the headline stops working. - Push Pin Style: Choosing a historical style without the wit that justifies it turns quotation into plain nostalgia and makes the eclecticism look like a pile. ## 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
- ITC Style 1970s–1980s / Style / Type Classification
New York in the phototype era produced a style of huge x-heights and tightly packed settings. Lubalin's conceptual typography and U&lc magazine staged letters as pictures and gave the period its face.
- Push Pin Style 1954–1980s / Style / Illustration Styles
Glaser and Chwast's studio worked as the counterpoint to Swiss rationalism, building an illustration-led eclecticism out of historical styles, comics and popular prints. Fat contours and ornamental planes of color repainted the magazines and records of the 1960s and 70s.
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