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 Windows 95 Interface's lettering (Set a bitmap sans at its native size with antialiasing off. Use one size, reserve bold for emphasis, and underline the single shortcut letter) 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 Windows 95 Interface (Carve everything from four values: the gray face, a white highlight, a mid gray shadow, a black outline. Build relief from an outer and an inner line, and swap light for dark on press).
- Colour
- Build on #D3D3D3, #B4B4B4, #5F9EA0 and admit one accent from #C0C0C0, #000080, #008080.
Where they fight
Nothing obvious pulls against itself here.
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.
- Windows 95 Interface Copy the gray and the doubled line but add rounded corners or soft shadows, and the direction of the carving stops reading, taking the hardness that defined the original with it.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Motif (style, 1989–) and their accent from Windows 95 Interface (style, 1995–2001). ## 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 Windows 95 Interface, used sparingly - Gray panels framed by a doubled edge, one light line and one dark line, outside and inside - A bar pinned to the bottom of the screen with a single square button at its left end - A flat navy title bar with three small squares grouped at its right end - Small bitmap text with no antialiasing, one letter underlined to mark the keyboard shortcut Let one material quality come from it: Carve everything from four values: the gray face, a white highlight, a mid gray shadow, a black outline. Build relief from an outer and an inner line, and swap light for dark on press. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #D3D3D3, carry the structure in #B4B4B4 and #5F9EA0, and let a single accent come from #008080. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: technique, trust, nostalgia. ## 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. - Windows 95 Interface: Copy the gray and the doubled line but add rounded corners or soft shadows, and the direction of the carving stops reading, taking the hardness that defined the original with it. ## 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.
- Windows 95 Interface 1995–2001 / Style / Microsoft UI
The screen language Microsoft set down in its 1995 handbook for software design. Gray panels are carved with a doubled outer and inner edge, so the direction of the shadow alone says what can be pressed. A bar sits permanently along the bottom, and every application is assembled from the same system parts.
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