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 1-Bit Icon Design: Rule the grid first and draw with one square standing for one pixel. Close the outline before deciding the interior, and leave one square of clearance inside the frame
- Type
- Set in 1-Bit Icon Design's manner (Keep letters out of the picture and put the label on a separate line outside it. Any type alongside sits on the same bitmap grid, with no italics and no ornament), and let Pixel Art's lettering (Draw letters on the same grid, fixing cap height in pixels) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in 1-Bit Icon Design's material (Two colours only, black and white. When a middle brightness is needed, build it by thinning the dots into a checkerboard rather than introducing gray. Leave diagonals as steps and do not smooth them); bring in exactly one thing from Pixel Art (Limited palette, dark outlines, neighboring hues to soften the steps).
- Colour
- Build on #000000, #FFFFFF, #808080 and admit one accent from #26243f, #ef6a55, #f3d36b.
Where they fight
- 1-Bit Icon Design and Pixel Art are techniques rather than looks. Decide which one runs last in the process, because that is the one that will show.
Caution
- 1-Bit Icon Design Adding gray or midtones to widen the range costs you the hard outline that only two values can produce, and the shape stops being legible at the size it is actually used.
- Pixel Art Downscaling a photograph skips the decision behind every single pixel, and the contours turn muddy the moment the image is enlarged.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from 1-Bit Icon Design (technique, 1982–1990s) and their accent from Pixel Art (technique, 1970s–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing 1-Bit Icon Design exists for: making small pictorial signs stand for commands with no caption, and read the same way in any language, or getting shapes to stay distinguishable inside a small frame that cannot be scaled or smoothed. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from 1-Bit Icon Design - Two values only, black and white, with gray standing in as a checkerboard of alternating dots - A one pixel outline closing each shape, and an interior that is either solid or dotted, never shaded - Ordinary objects, scissors, a bin, a sheet of paper, standing in as the names of commands - Visible traces of one dot placed per grid square, so diagonals break into steps Composition: Rule the grid first and draw with one square standing for one pixel. Close the outline before deciding the interior, and leave one square of clearance inside the frame. Type and lettering: Keep letters out of the picture and put the label on a separate line outside it. Any type alongside sits on the same bitmap grid, with no italics and no ornament. ## Accent comes from Pixel Art, used sparingly - Visible pixels - Limited palettes - Tiles - Sprites Let one material quality come from it: Limited palette, dark outlines, neighboring hues to soften the steps. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #FFFFFF, carry the structure in #808080 and #000000, and let a single accent come from #ef6a55. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: intimacy, play, technique, nostalgia. ## Where they fight - 1-Bit Icon Design and Pixel Art are techniques rather than looks. Decide which one runs last in the process, because that is the one that will show. ## What goes wrong - 1-Bit Icon Design: Adding gray or midtones to widen the range costs you the hard outline that only two values can produce, and the shape stops being legible at the size it is actually used. - Pixel Art: Downscaling a photograph skips the decision behind every single pixel, and the contours turn muddy the moment the image is enlarged. ## 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
- 1-Bit Icon Design 1982–1990s / Technique / UI Expression
The way of drawing icons in nothing but black and white that Susan Kare established for the Macintosh. She worked each design out on graph paper with one square standing for one pixel, and restated commands as ordinary objects, a pair of scissors for cutting and a bin for deleting, so the set could be read without a caption in any country. Her sketchbook now sits in a museum collection.
- Pixel Art 1970s– / Technique / Digital Image Techniques
Treats the pixel as an honest unit, building clear form from limited resolution and palette.
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