Design · Material study
◊ What makes glass look like glass?
◊ Two techniques over the same background: noise, and the geometry of the edge.
The thought
◊ The left card bends the background with noise, the right one with a map of its own edge: refraction, a colour fringe, a rim light from one angle, frost in the middle. Switch the grid and the glow, move the pointer, compare.
What comes next
◊ What could be new: interfaces that borrow their material from what lies behind them, on every device that can render it.
Try the experiment
Working sketchNoiseGlass◊ The gate
◊ Light bends at the edge and stays clear in the middle. This card sits over dots, a line of type and two glows.
Glass v3◊ The gate
◊ Light bends at the edge and stays clear in the middle. This card sits over dots, a line of type and two glows.
◊ Everything on this page is a sketch, and every text is a draft.
Next idea: Boarding, rethought