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 Mingei: Favor forms that line up together and avoid one piece standing out
- Type
- Set in Mingei's manner (Minimal marking, wording that states the use rather than the maker), and let MUJI's lettering (A light sans set small, its personality kept out of the way) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Mingei's material (Local materials and standing glazes, the same form made many times); bring in exactly one thing from MUJI (Unbleached or clear packaging printed with material and process).
- Colour
- Build on #dfcc9d, #a66b3b, #3e271d and admit one accent from #dfe5e7, #b0a981, #31261f.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Mingei The moment individual authorship is asserted the premise of anonymity collapses, and what remains is expensive craft merely performing plainness.
- MUJI Draining color and widening margins without the voice that explains reasons leaves expensive goods that merely look quiet.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Mingei (style, 1926–) and their accent from MUJI (style, 1980–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Mingei exists for: setting the form and the reachable price of everyday wares meant for daily use, or retail and presentation that make the maker and the region the subject. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Mingei - Anonymous craftsmanship - Form following use - The steadiness born of repetition - Local materials and hand habits Composition: Favor forms that line up together and avoid one piece standing out. Type and lettering: Minimal marking, wording that states the use rather than the maker. ## Accent comes from MUJI, used sparingly - Unbleached paper and uncoloured translucent plastic standing as the colour of the packaging - No name or mark printed on the product itself, the name living only on the hang tag and the price label - Several lines of small type on the hang tag explaining the material and how it was made - Advertising that keeps the product small, with landscape or empty space filling most of the frame Let one material quality come from it: Unbleached or clear packaging printed with material and process. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #dfcc9d, carry the structure in #a66b3b and #3e271d, and let a single accent come from #b0a981. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: calm, intimacy, trust. ## What goes wrong - Mingei: The moment individual authorship is asserted the premise of anonymity collapses, and what remains is expensive craft merely performing plainness. - MUJI: Draining color and widening margins without the voice that explains reasons leaves expensive goods that merely look quiet. ## 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
- Mingei 1926– / Style / Craft Movements
Yanagi Sōetsu and his circle found 'the beauty of use' in the everyday wares of unnamed craftsmen. By making anonymity, repetition and utility the measure of healthy form, the movement became the bedrock of Japanese design thought.
- MUJI 1980– / Style / Contemporary Branding
A way of letting the raw colour of a material stand as the finish of an industrial product. Unbleached paper, uncoloured plastic and unstained wood are the outside of the thing, and the product name moves off that surface onto a hang tag.
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