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 Pacific Punk Wave: Build a base grid, pass one wave or diagonal through it, and let only that line derail text and imagery
- Type
- Set in Pacific Punk Wave's manner (Cross a heavy grotesk and thin italic at steep angles, changing speed word by word), and let Swiss Punk Typography's lettering (Letterspacing opened in steps, one word repeated at several sizes) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Pacific Punk Wave's material (Limit flat fluorescents, coarse photographs, photocopy texture, and comic linework to two or three layers); bring in exactly one thing from Swiss Punk Typography (Layered exposures building halftone and reversal through the film).
- Colour
- Build on #F15A91, #38A6A3, #171719 and admit one accent from #e7e7e7, #fb4c32, #150c06.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Pacific Punk Wave Scattered shapes become a generic 1980s look. Keep the collision among Swiss order, punk, Googie, and Radical design visible.
- Swiss Punk Typography Breaking a grid you never built leaves the offsets nothing to measure against, so the rebellion within discipline never happens and only mess remains.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Pacific Punk Wave (style, mid-1970s–early 1980s) and their accent from Swiss Punk Typography (style, 1970s–1980s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Pacific Punk Wave exists for: music, retail, and event promotion turning punk roughness into bright West Coast speed, or exhibitions tracing 1980s commercial graphics through regional intersections of several movements. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Pacific Punk Wave - 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 Composition: Build a base grid, pass one wave or diagonal through it, and let only that line derail text and imagery. Type and lettering: Cross a heavy grotesk and thin italic at steep angles, changing speed word by word. ## Accent comes from Swiss Punk Typography, used sparingly - The grid dismantled - Exploding letterspacing - Stepped compositions - Layered-film textures Let one material quality come from it: Layered exposures building halftone and reversal through the film. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #38A6A3, carry the structure in #F15A91 and #171719, and let a single accent come from #fb4c32. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: rebellion, exhilaration, play, technique. ## What goes wrong - Pacific Punk Wave: Scattered shapes become a generic 1980s look. Keep the collision among Swiss order, punk, Googie, and Radical design visible. - Swiss Punk Typography: Breaking a grid you never built leaves the offsets nothing to measure against, so the rebellion within discipline never happens and only mess remains. ## 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
- 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.
- Swiss Punk Typography 1970s–1980s / Style / Experimental Typography
In Basel, the home of Swiss style, Weingart took the grid apart from the inside. Exploded letterspacing, stepped settings and layered film exposures turned rebellion within discipline into New Wave typography.
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