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 Onchi Kōshirō Book Design: The cover composed as one surface rather than as a picture with lettering added to it
- Type
- Set in Onchi Kōshirō Book Design's manner (Title lettering drawn by hand instead of set in type, on the same surface and at the same weight as the image), and let Private Press's lettering (One type throughout, with the fewest possible changes of size) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Onchi Kōshirō Book Design's material (Few colors and no outlines, form made by overlapping planes, the bare paper left showing and counted as one of the colors); bring in exactly one thing from Private Press (Letterpress impression on handmade paper, red headings printed as a second pass).
- Colour
- Build on #f4e2cc, #cc7c26, #0e0e0c and admit one accent from #f2ece0, #b2463d, #1c1a17.
Where they fight
- Onchi Kōshirō Book Design and Private Press both belong to Publishing and Editing, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Onchi Kōshirō Book Design Setting a representational picture into a frame turns the cover back into a place to put a picture, and the surface stops being a print.
- Private Press Borrowing only the decorated initials and the handmade paper leaves the text setting loose and yields an expensive antique looking pamphlet. Read it as a publishing movement about production, labor and quality.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Onchi Kōshirō Book Design (style, 1910s–1950s) and their accent from Private Press (style, 1891–1930s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Onchi Kōshirō Book Design exists for: covers for poetry and collected works made as a print rather than as a holder for a picture, or few color printing where even the title lettering belongs to the image surface. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Onchi Kōshirō Book Design - Covers built only from abstract shapes and flat colour, with no representational illustration - Title lettering drawn by hand rather than set in type, sitting on the same surface as the image - Few colours, with form made by overlapping planes instead of outlines - The bare colour of the paper left showing, with the image laid straight onto it Composition: The cover composed as one surface rather than as a picture with lettering added to it. Type and lettering: Title lettering drawn by hand instead of set in type, on the same surface and at the same weight as the image. ## Accent comes from Private Press, used sparingly - House-designed type - Handmade paper, hand presses - Margins designed by the spread - Illustration united with text Let one material quality come from it: Letterpress impression on handmade paper, red headings printed as a second pass. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #f4e2cc, carry the structure in #cc7c26 and #0e0e0c, and let a single accent come from #b2463d. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: luxury, intimacy, calm, nostalgia. ## Where they fight - Onchi Kōshirō Book Design and Private Press both belong to Publishing and Editing, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - Onchi Kōshirō Book Design: Setting a representational picture into a frame turns the cover back into a place to put a picture, and the surface stops being a print. - Private Press: Borrowing only the decorated initials and the handmade paper leaves the text setting loose and yields an expensive antique looking pamphlet. Read it as a publishing movement about production, labor and quality. ## 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
- Onchi Kōshirō Book Design 1910s–1950s / Style / Publishing and Editing
Book design that treats the cover as a print in its own right rather than as a frame for a picture. Representational illustration gives way to abstract shapes and flat colour, and the title lettering sits inside that surface as one of its parts.
- Private Press 1891–1930s / Style / Publishing and Editing
A movement answering industrialized printing: type, paper, composition and binding unified under one ideal, remaking the book as a total work of art.
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