Compose two styles
Rather than blending two styles into a middle, this assigns them roles: one carries the structure, the other appears as an accent. Where the two fight, 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 #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
- 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
An original image that takes its structure from Pictogram System (Style, 1964–) and its accent from Signal Flags (Style, 1857–). Structural cues: Geometrized human figures; Uniform stroke weight; Consistency as a system; Independence from language. Accent cues, used sparingly: High-contrast geometry; Designed for distance; One flag, one letter; Hoists strung to the masthead. 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. Let one material quality come from the second style: Saturated red, yellow and blue set hard against white and black. Mood: Trust, Technology, Intimacy, Exhilaration. Color: build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 with a single accent drawn from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615. Constraints: do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. Produce an original composition 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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