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 Material Design: Place elements on a grid of multiples of 8 and standardize the spacing
- Type
- Set in Material Design's manner (Build the hierarchy from one type family and separate levels by weight and size), and let Skeleton Screen's lettering (Set no type at all. Where headings and body will go, lay blank fields matched to the real line height and measure) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Material Design's material (Give surfaces elevation and show front and back by the density of the shadow); bring in exactly one thing from Skeleton Screen (Use neutral fields one step away from the background. Match corner radius and size to the real elements and add no further colour).
- Colour
- Build on #dfd5ec, #6a5996, #020202 and admit one accent from #FFFFFF, #E4E6EA, #F2F4F6.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Material Design Do not add shadow as decoration. The moment the elevation rules break, the hierarchy is telling a lie.
- Skeleton Screen If the blank fields do not match the real content's dimensions, everything shifts the moment data lands, which reads worse than the spinner it replaced.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Material Design (style, 2014–) and their accent from Skeleton Screen (technique, 2013–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Material Design exists for: distributing consistent behavior across several platforms, or communicating the depth of a hierarchy visually. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Material Design - Hierarchy and shadow expressed by elevation - Surfaces overlapping like sheets of paper - Motion that shows cause and effect - A standardized unit of spacing Composition: Place elements on a grid of multiples of 8 and standardize the spacing. Type and lettering: Build the hierarchy from one type family and separate levels by weight and size. ## Accent comes from Skeleton Screen, used sparingly - No spinner and no progress bar while the screen loads - Blank fields already standing where text and images will land, at the size they will occupy - A layout committed before the data arrives, so nothing shifts when it does - Regions filling in one after another instead of the whole screen appearing at once Let one material quality come from it: Use neutral fields one step away from the background. Match corner radius and size to the real elements and add no further colour. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #dfd5ec, carry the structure in #6a5996 and #020202, and let a single accent come from #F2F4F6. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: trust, technique, play, calm. ## What goes wrong - Material Design: Do not add shadow as decoration. The moment the elevation rules break, the hierarchy is telling a lie. - Skeleton Screen: If the blank fields do not match the real content's dimensions, everything shifts the moment data lands, which reads worse than the spinner it replaced. ## 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
- 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.
- Skeleton Screen 2013– / Technique / UI Expression
A loading treatment that drops the spinner and shows a blank version of the page instead, then fills information into it as the data arrives. Luke Wroblewski named the technique in 2013, writing about his own app Polar, where a spinner had made testers report that the app felt slower than the previous version. The aim is to show advance toward the goal rather than the act of waiting.
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