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 Metal (Java Look and Feel): Fix four bands inside the window: menu, tool strip, work area, status strip. Leave the host window frame alone and paint only what is inside it
- Type
- Set in Metal (Java Look and Feel)'s manner (Run a single sans throughout and separate levels with weight and color only. Keep to two type sizes and leave headings undecorated), and let Material Design's lettering (Build the hierarchy from one type family and separate levels by weight and size) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Metal (Java Look and Feel)'s material (Combine three steps of blue violet, a pale field, a deep band, a darker border, with three steps of gray. Draw every boundary as a one pixel line and never blur it); bring in exactly one thing from Material Design (Give surfaces elevation and show front and back by the density of the shadow).
- Colour
- Build on #CCCCFF, #9999CC, #666699 and admit one accent from #dfd5ec, #6a5996, #020202.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Metal (Java Look and Feel) Since Java SE 5 the default theme has been Ocean, which drains most of the blue violet away, so building on the assumption that Metal means blue violet will not match what actually runs.
- Material Design Do not add shadow as decoration. The moment the elevation rules break, the hierarchy is telling a lie.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Metal (Java Look and Feel) (style, 1998–) and their accent from Material Design (style, 2014–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Metal (Java Look and Feel) exists for: flattening the differences between operating systems so an internally distributed desktop tool reads as one picture everywhere, or recreating the screen of a turn of the century business application for a document or an exhibit. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Metal (Java Look and Feel) - Internal window title bars laid as a deep blue violet band over a pale blue violet field - A fine texture of dots and diagonal ticks stamped into title bars and dividers - Rectangular buttons with no corner radius, ringed by a one pixel deep blue violet line - The host system draws the outer window frame while everything inside it follows a different visual language Composition: Fix four bands inside the window: menu, tool strip, work area, status strip. Leave the host window frame alone and paint only what is inside it. Type and lettering: Run a single sans throughout and separate levels with weight and color only. Keep to two type sizes and leave headings undecorated. ## Accent comes from Material Design, used sparingly - Hierarchy and shadow expressed by elevation - Surfaces overlapping like sheets of paper - Motion that shows cause and effect - A standardized unit of spacing Let one material quality come from it: Give surfaces elevation and show front and back by the density of the shadow. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #CCCCFF, carry the structure in #9999CC and #666699, and let a single accent come from #6a5996. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: technique, trust, play. ## What goes wrong - Metal (Java Look and Feel): Since Java SE 5 the default theme has been Ocean, which drains most of the blue violet away, so building on the assumption that Metal means blue violet will not match what actually runs. - Material Design: Do not add shadow as decoration. The moment the elevation rules break, the hierarchy is telling a lie. ## 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
- Metal (Java Look and Feel) 1998– / Style / Platform Screen Languages
Sun's default look and feel for Swing, built so that a program looks the same on every operating system. Metal was Sun's internal project name for it and stuck as the public one. Blue violet fills, thin straight borders, and a flat refusal to imitate the host platform are its signature.
- Material Design 2014– / Style / Google UI
A design system that reduces the physical metaphor of paper and ink to rules of shadow and overlap. Elements are given elevation, shadow states the hierarchy, and motion carries physical cause and effect. It became the model for UI design being distributed as a system. The 2021 revision added colour derived from the device wallpaper, so the palette differs from one user to the next.
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