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 Minitel Service Screen: Rule the 40 by 24 grid first, then allocate heading, body and input field onto it. Never overflow the rows, because each screen has to be complete in itself
- Type
- Set in Minitel Service Screen's manner (Everything sits on one fixed width cell. Since type size cannot change, emphasis has to come from reversed video and underlines alone), and let PLATO Terminal Screen's lettering (One monospaced face only, with no weight contrast and at most two sizes) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Minitel Service Screen's material (Build images from blocks that divide one cell into six, three down and two across. Hold to eight colours, and allow any single cell at most two of them, one for the character and one for its ground); bring in exactly one thing from PLATO Terminal Screen (Black ground, one glowing orange and no midtones, with the density of dots and strokes carrying the tone).
- Colour
- Build on #000000, #00FFFF, #FFFF00 and admit one accent from #FF7B1A, #0A0A0A, #8C3B00.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Minitel Service Screen Smooth curves and midtones half erase the coarseness of the divided cell, and once that goes the grid holding the whole thing up stops being visible.
- PLATO Terminal Screen Adding scanlines and bloom to make it feel like a cathode ray tube erases the one thing that defined this screen, a flat plasma panel that glows without smearing.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Minitel Service Screen (layout, 1980–2012) and their accent from PLATO Terminal Screen (style, 1972–1980s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Minitel Service Screen exists for: fitting a picture and running text onto one screen where both must sit on the same character grid, or designing a screen limited to eight colours, where emphasis can only come from reversed video and underlines. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Minitel Service Screen - A band carrying the name of the service along the top, with numbered choices running down the screen in one column - Headings and pictures assembled from blocks that split a single character cell three down and two across - Only eight saturated colours in play, with no intermediate hues and no gradation - The place to type marked by a band of reversed video, with emphasis limited to reversal and an underline Composition: Rule the 40 by 24 grid first, then allocate heading, body and input field onto it. Never overflow the rows, because each screen has to be complete in itself. Type and lettering: Everything sits on one fixed width cell. Since type size cannot change, emphasis has to come from reversed video and underlines alone. ## Accent comes from PLATO Terminal Screen, used sparingly - Text and line drawing glowing in a single orange on a black panel - Characters placed by coordinate rather than by line flow, cutting into the middle of a drawing - Text and graphics sharing one surface, with no frames dividing the regions - Questions answered by touching the screen itself Let one material quality come from it: Black ground, one glowing orange and no midtones, with the density of dots and strokes carrying the tone. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #FFFF00, carry the structure in #00FFFF and #000000, and let a single accent come from #8C3B00. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: nostalgia, technique, intimacy. ## What goes wrong - Minitel Service Screen: Smooth curves and midtones half erase the coarseness of the divided cell, and once that goes the grid holding the whole thing up stops being visible. - PLATO Terminal Screen: Adding scanlines and bloom to make it feel like a cathode ray tube erases the one thing that defined this screen, a flat plasma panel that glows without smearing. ## 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
- Minitel Service Screen 1980–2012 / Layout / Digital Retro
A service page built to finish inside one screen of a grid terminal. The name of the service sits along the top, the choices run down the screen as a numbered list, and headings and pictures are assembled from coarse blocks that divide the character cell.
- PLATO Terminal Screen 1972–1980s / Style / Platform Screen Languages
PLATO was the computer-assisted teaching system started at the University of Illinois in the early 1960s under Donald Bitzer, and its screen is a style in its own right. It ran on plasma flat panels with touch input, and the TUTOR language placed text and drawing by coordinate rather than by line flow, so a lesson was assembled straight onto the surface. Its notes files, private messages and multiplayer games set the shape of later online screens.
Share this composition:https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=minitel-screen+plato-screen