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 Motif: Windows are cut into beveled rectangles and controls are packed a few pixels apart; there is almost no breathing room, the screen is filled with operable parts
- Type
- Set in Motif's manner (A small sans at one fixed size, labels held to a single line, no letterspacing and no ornament inside the text), and let OPEN LOOK's lettering (Set every shared element in the same sans serif variable width face. Size in points rather than pixels, and scale through the 10, 12, 14 and 19 point steps the spec provides) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Motif's material (Pick one face color, derive a light edge and a dark edge from it, and paint them on opposite sides; swap the two while pressed, and never round a corner); bring in exactly one thing from OPEN LOOK (Make the design work in black and white first. For the three dimensional version pick one background colour, derive the recessed shade by adding 10 to 15 percent black, and reserve white for lit edges).
- Colour
- Build on #D3D3D3, #B4B4B4, #5F9EA0 and admit one accent from #000000, #808080, #FFFFFF.
Where they fight
- Motif and OPEN LOOK both belong to Platform Screen Languages, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Motif Replacing the two hard edge colors with a soft drop shadow kills the flip that signals a press, leaving decoration that merely looks raised.
- OPEN LOOK Starting from the three dimensional colour scheme collapses the moment the design meets a monochrome display, where neither the raised edges nor the pushpin survive.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Motif (style, 1989–) and their accent from OPEN LOOK (style, 1988–1990s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Motif exists for: rebuilding a UNIX workstation era application for an exhibit or a technical write up, or building instrument or CAD controls where pressable and unpressable must read as relief rather than color. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Motif - A gray face lit along its top and left edges and darkened along its bottom and right, so every part appears raised - While a control is held down the two edge colors swap and the part sinks - A thin rectangular ring is drawn around whichever control currently takes keyboard input - Scroll bars are square cornered rectangles with a triangular arrow button at each end Composition: Windows are cut into beveled rectangles and controls are packed a few pixels apart; there is almost no breathing room, the screen is filled with operable parts. Type and lettering: A small sans at one fixed size, labels held to a single line, no letterspacing and no ornament inside the text. ## Accent comes from OPEN LOOK, used sparingly - A pushpin at the left end of a pop-up window's header, which pins the window to the workspace instead of dismissing it - Three dots after a label announce a window, an outlined triangle announces a menu - Scrollbars split into an elevator, a cable and top and bottom cable anchors, with the dark part of the cable showing how much is in view - The workspace is a 50 percent dither pattern and menu drop shadows are a 75 percent pattern Let one material quality come from it: Make the design work in black and white first. For the three dimensional version pick one background colour, derive the recessed shade by adding 10 to 15 percent black, and reserve white for lit edges. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #D3D3D3, carry the structure in #B4B4B4 and #5F9EA0, and let a single accent come from #808080. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: technique, trust. ## Where they fight - Motif and OPEN LOOK both belong to Platform Screen Languages, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - Motif: Replacing the two hard edge colors with a soft drop shadow kills the flip that signals a press, leaving decoration that merely looks raised. - OPEN LOOK: Starting from the three dimensional colour scheme collapses the moment the design meets a monochrome display, where neither the raised edges nor the pushpin survive. ## 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
- Motif 1989– / Style / Platform Screen Languages
Motif is the interface language of UNIX workstations, maintained by The Open Group, standardized as IEEE 1295 and shipped on more than two hundred platforms. Its own data sheet calls the look a distinctive 3D beveled appearance, meaning every part sits on a gray face edged with one light line and one dark line.
- OPEN LOOK 1988–1990s / Style / Platform Screen Languages
A screen language for Unix workstations, specified by Sun Microsystems in a functional specification published by Addison-Wesley in 1989. The book defines two parallel designs, one black and white for monochrome displays and one three dimensional for grayscale and colour, sets a single sans serif variable width face for every common element, and tells implementers that restraint is the key to colour. Each pop-up window carries a pushpin at the left of its header, and pinning it leaves the window on the workspace.
Share this composition:https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=motif+open-look