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 Pictogram System: Fit all symbols to a square frame with matched margins and optical center
- Type
- Set in Pictogram System's manner (Draw every mark on one grid and stroke weight, human proportions shared), and let Signal Flags's lettering (Shapes limited to divisions, crosses and discs, with no fine detail) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Pictogram System's material (Single color silhouettes, minimum size and viewing distance decided first); bring in exactly one thing from Signal Flags (Saturated red, yellow and blue set hard against white and black).
- Colour
- Build on #ffffff, #005bab, #111111 and admit one accent from #ffffff, #9f1619, #07015d.
Where they fight
- Pictogram System and Signal Flags stand roughly 107 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Pictogram System Drawing each mark as a picture lets stroke and proportion drift, the set stops reading as a system, and meanings swap at a distance.
- Signal Flags Borrowing the palette while complicating the shapes collapses the outline when reduced or backlit, and recognition at range fails.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Pictogram System (style, 1964–) and their accent from Signal Flags (style, 1857–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Pictogram System exists for: guiding visitors of many languages through a venue without words, or turning facility or sport categories into marks legible from a distance. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Pictogram System - Geometrized human figures - Uniform stroke weight - Consistency as a system - Independence from language Composition: Fit all symbols to a square frame with matched margins and optical center. Type and lettering: Draw every mark on one grid and stroke weight, human proportions shared. ## Accent comes from Signal Flags, used sparingly - High-contrast geometry - Designed for distance - One flag, one letter - Hoists strung to the masthead Let one material quality come from it: Saturated red, yellow and blue set hard against white and black. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #ffffff, carry the structure in #005bab and #111111, and let a single accent come from #9f1619. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: trust, technique, intimacy, exhilaration. ## Where they fight - Pictogram System and Signal Flags stand roughly 107 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle. ## What goes wrong - Pictogram System: Drawing each mark as a picture lets stroke and proportion drift, the set stops reading as a system, and meanings swap at a distance. - Signal Flags: Borrowing the palette while complicating the shapes collapses the outline when reduced or backlit, and recognition at range fails. ## 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
- Pictogram System 1964– / Style / Information Design
Unified symbol systems that name facilities and actions without language. Tokyo 1964 systematized sport and wayfinding symbols; the AIGA/DOT transportation set became the public-domain world standard.
- Signal Flags 1857– / Style / Symbol Systems
The flag system for spelling letters and set phrases at sea. High-contrast geometry chosen solely for distant legibility became a masterpiece collection of abstraction born from function.
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