1970 as ASCII
Asked to fine-tune the first three eras, the build redesigned them. 1970 became an eye made of typed characters. It was more 1970 and much less of an eye.
What was asked
"Fine-tune the era looks, starting with 1970, 1981 and 1991."
What was built
Redesigns. 1970 was redrawn as rows of dot-matrix characters, the way a terminal would print a picture. 1981 was put inside an early window.
it just misses so much detail… changed the entire vibe… all the things have already been used
All three were reverted.
What it taught
Two rules came out of this round.
The first is about the work: the whole face stays visible. A terminal's characters are too coarse to hold a lash or a pore, so a face drawn in them stops being a face.
The second is about the process. "Fine-tune" is not permission to redesign. A look that has been signed off keeps its medium and all of its detail unless the change is named.
The 1970 that shipped keeps the phosphor and loses nothing.