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 Precisionism: Build on horizontals and verticals, split planes with hard diagonal shadows
- Type
- Set in Precisionism's manner (Keep only the lettering already on the building and add none), and let Streamline Moderne's lettering (Wide horizontal letterforms carried sideways by speed lines) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Precisionism's material (Smooth paint with no visible stroke, grey to white tones, hard light); bring in exactly one thing from Streamline Moderne (Chrome, opal glass, curved metal panels with the joints hidden).
- Colour
- Build on #d8d8d1, #8795a0, #34383b and admit one accent from #e8e4d8, #527f8b, #3e4140.
Where they fight
- Precisionism and Streamline Moderne share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over.
Caution
- Precisionism Cleaning up contours without deciding where the light comes from leaves the planes unexplained, and the picture flattens into a technical drawing.
- Streamline Moderne Curves and horizontals added without any functional reason become a pattern that merely looks fast, no different from the ornament they replaced.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Precisionism (style, 1910s–1940s) and their accent from Streamline Moderne (style, 1930s–1940s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Precisionism exists for: rendering factories and warehouses as ordered and quiet images, or showing industrial structure as form, with no people in the frame. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Precisionism - Sharp contours - Industrial landscapes - Geometric simplification - Smooth surfaces Composition: Build on horizontals and verticals, split planes with hard diagonal shadows. Type and lettering: Keep only the lettering already on the building and add none. ## Accent comes from Streamline Moderne, used sparingly - Streamlined forms - Horizontal bands - Rounded corners - Chrome Let one material quality come from it: Chrome, opal glass, curved metal panels with the joints hidden. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #d8d8d1, carry the structure in #8795a0 and #34383b, and let a single accent come from #527f8b. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: technique, calm, trust, futurity, exhilaration, luxury. ## Where they fight - Precisionism and Streamline Moderne share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over. ## What goes wrong - Precisionism: Cleaning up contours without deciding where the light comes from leaves the planes unexplained, and the picture flattens into a technical drawing. - Streamline Moderne: Curves and horizontals added without any functional reason become a pattern that merely looks fast, no different from the ornament they replaced. ## 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
- Precisionism 1910s–1940s / Style / American Modern Art
Paints factories, silos, cities and machines reduced to clear contour, simple geometry and smooth planes.
- Streamline Moderne 1930s–1940s / Style / Modern Architecture
Gives even stationary things speed and machine-age optimism through streamlines, horizontals, rounded corners and metal.
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