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 OS/2 Workplace Shell: Use the desktop as a base, overlap folder windows, and gather settings into a multi-tab Notebook
- Type
- Set in OS/2 Workplace Shell's manner (Use a small system sans and keep object names to one line directly below their icons), 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 OS/2 Workplace Shell's material (Layer light upper-left and dark lower-right edges on middle gray, giving icons limited color and small shadows); 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 #C9C7BD, #557A9E, #202226 and admit one accent from #C0C0C0, #000080, #008080.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- OS/2 Workplace Shell Old icons and 3D buttons are not enough. Every part must behave as a directly operable, related object.
- 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 OS/2 Workplace Shell (style, 1992–2001) and their accent from Windows 95 Interface (style, 1995–2001). ## What to make Make the kind of thing OS/2 Workplace Shell exists for: handling files, devices and settings as one environment of related objects rather than separate applications, or reconstructing a 1990s work desktop from its object model instead of window decoration. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from OS/2 Workplace Shell - Pale gray surfaces with double light and dark dimensional edges - Low-color object icons drawn from an oblique view - Notebook settings with stacked edge tabs - Direct dragging among folders, shredder and drives Composition: Use the desktop as a base, overlap folder windows, and gather settings into a multi-tab Notebook. Type and lettering: Use a small system sans and keep object names to one line directly below their icons. ## 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 #C9C7BD, carry the structure in #557A9E and #202226, 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 - OS/2 Workplace Shell: Old icons and 3D buttons are not enough. Every part must behave as a directly operable, related object. - 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
- OS/2 Workplace Shell 1992–2001 / Style / Platform Screen Languages
OS/2 treated folders, printers, drives and settings as operable objects rather than loose icons. Dimensional borders, shaded icons, Notebook settings and direct drag-and-drop made the whole desktop one object-oriented workplace.
- 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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