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 New Wave: Shift the grid; hold several angles at once
- Type
- Set in New Wave's manner (Mix condensed, geometric and vertical setting), and let Pacific Punk Wave's lettering (Cross a heavy grotesk and thin italic at steep angles, changing speed word by word) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in New Wave's material (Yellow, red, blue, dots, thin rules); bring in exactly one thing from Pacific Punk Wave (Limit flat fluorescents, coarse photographs, photocopy texture, and comic linework to two or three layers).
- Colour
- Build on #f1dfca, #f03d51, #3156af and admit one accent from #F15A91, #38A6A3, #171719.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- New Wave Don't multiply small decorations. Choose one starring deviation.
- Pacific Punk Wave Scattered shapes become a generic 1980s look. Keep the collision among Swiss order, punk, Googie, and Radical design visible.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from New Wave (style, 1970s–1980s) and their accent from Pacific Punk Wave (style, mid-1970s–early 1980s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing New Wave exists for: editorial heat for culture media, or adding surprise to serious content. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from New Wave - Irregular grid - Dots - High chroma - Rotated type Composition: Shift the grid; hold several angles at once. Type and lettering: Mix condensed, geometric and vertical setting. ## Accent comes from Pacific Punk Wave, used sparingly - Abrupt changes between heavy and light type on diagonals - High-contrast pink, turquoise, yellow, and black - Boomerangs, waves, zigzags, and comic-like shapes - A disciplined grid broken once by a kitsch image Let one material quality come from it: Limit flat fluorescents, coarse photographs, photocopy texture, and comic linework to two or three layers. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #f1dfca, carry the structure in #f03d51 and #3156af, and let a single accent come from #F15A91. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: play, rebellion, exhilaration. ## What goes wrong - New Wave: Don't multiply small decorations. Choose one starring deviation. - Pacific Punk Wave: Scattered shapes become a generic 1980s look. Keep the collision among Swiss order, punk, Googie, and Radical design visible. ## 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
- New Wave 1970s–1980s / Style / Counterculture
Keeps punk's freedom while re-editing color and grid with urban polish.
- Pacific Punk Wave mid-1970s–early 1980s / Style / Regional Graphics
A US West Coast graphic style mixing punk, Swiss New Wave, Italian Radical design, and 1950s kitsch. Strict typography is deliberately derailed by diagonals, waves, neon color, and comic imagery.
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