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 Luna: A horizontal bar along the bottom, one primary control at its left
- Type
- Set in Luna's manner (Bold sans in white, contrasted hard against the blue ground), and let Platinum's lettering (One small sans serif carries both body text and controls. Hierarchy comes from surface height rather than type size, and bold is reserved for titles and the current selection.) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Luna's material (Saturated blue and green, frames swelled by rounding and gradient); bring in exactly one thing from Platinum (Keep three grays (a light face, a base, a dark edge). Build the bevel from a one pixel light line at the top left and a one pixel dark line at the bottom right. For the disabled state, delete both lines and fill with the base gray.).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #D6D6D6, #EBEBEB, #606060.
Where they fight
These two are already listed as related, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Luna Copying only the palette while dropping the rounding and swell leaves the colors floating, and none of the optimism arrives.
- Platinum Hand drawn custom controls do not participate in the system appearance, so they stay stuck in the previous generation's look while everything around them changes.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Luna (Style, 2001–2006) and its accent from Platinum (Style, 1997–2001). Structural cues: The blue taskbar; The green Start button; Rounded frames; Meadow-and-sky optimism. Accent cues, used sparingly: Windows and controls built entirely from desaturated grays; Live controls carry a bevel and stand up, while disabled ones go flat and sink into the same gray as the background; Thick molded window frames sitting next to modal dialogs that have almost no frame at all; A collapse box at the right end of the title bar, and pop up menus raised into buttons with a double triangle. Composition: A horizontal bar along the bottom, one primary control at its left. Type and lettering: Bold sans in white, contrasted hard against the blue ground. Let one material quality come from the second style: Keep three grays (a light face, a base, a dark edge). Build the bevel from a one pixel light line at the top left and a one pixel dark line at the bottom right. For the disabled state, delete both lines and fill with the base gray.. Mood: Intimacy, Play, Trust, Technology, Nostalgia. Color: build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 with a single accent drawn from #D6D6D6, #EBEBEB, #606060. 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
- Luna 2001–2006 / Style / Microsoft UI
Windows XP's look: blue taskbar, green Start button, rounded windows and a meadow wallpaper repainting the gray office machine as household optimism.
- Platinum 1997–2001 / Style / Apple UI
Apple's own name for the default appearance of Mac OS 8, shipped alongside the Appearance Manager, a framework built so the entire look could later be swapped for another. It drains the color out of the interface and works in grays alone, embossing whatever can be pressed and flattening whatever cannot until it merges with the background. The newly thickened window frame was a signal that the window could now be dragged by any edge.
Share this pairing:https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=luna+platinum