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 OPEN LOOK: Give each window four resize corners and gather commands into control areas outside the pane. Every pop-up window opens with a header that carries a pushpin
- Type
- Set in OPEN LOOK's manner (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), and let Terminal UI's lettering (One monospaced face where emphasis comes from weight and inversion alone) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in OPEN LOOK's material (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); bring in exactly one thing from Terminal UI (One phosphor hue on black with scanlines and bloom added sparingly).
- Colour
- Build on #000000, #808080, #FFFFFF and admit one accent from #b2b2b2, #00a800, #010301.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- 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.
- Terminal UI Heavy scanlines and flicker cost legibility and the atmosphere ends up beating the speed that made the tool worth using.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from OPEN LOOK (style, 1988–1990s) and their accent from Terminal UI (style, 1970s–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing OPEN LOOK exists for: rebuilding a Unix workstation screen from around 1990 with a look that reads as Sun rather than Motif, or rebuilding a working screen so it survives a one bit display, using dither patterns and outlines alone. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from OPEN LOOK - 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 Composition: Give each window four resize corners and gather commands into control areas outside the pane. Every pop-up window opens with a header that carries a pushpin. Type and 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. ## Accent comes from Terminal UI, used sparingly - Single phosphor color on black - The monospace grid - A blinking cursor - Scanlines and glow Let one material quality come from it: One phosphor hue on black with scanlines and bloom added sparingly. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #FFFFFF, carry the structure in #808080 and #000000, and let a single accent come from #00a800. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: technique, trust, rebellion, calm. ## What goes wrong - 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. - Terminal UI: Heavy scanlines and flicker cost legibility and the atmosphere ends up beating the speed that made the tool worth using. ## 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
- 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.
- Terminal UI 1970s– / Style / UI Expression
The terminal look: monospaced phosphor characters on black. The VT100's green afterglow became the primal image of the computer's face, repeated from hacker cinema to modern CLI tools.
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