Distributed Application Architecture Patterns

2.1 Inspiration

One exception, however, is [15], which served as an inspiration for the visual style of this work. Out of all of the works reviewed, it is the only one with a visual style crafted to fit, with consistent iconography and (albeit monochrome) colour scheme, even going as far as creating pictograms for each pattern.

It has its downsides, however. While understandable for print, the monochrome colour scheme shows its limits on a screen, where the sacrifice to readability feels particularly out-of-place, especially when paired with the muted blue used as an accent on the website, pushing the look to almost dreary.

Another point is the choice of typeface. The diagrams employ Open Sans, a well-made open-source font, but not known to be terribly exciting, which is further diminished by the fact that, at the time of writing, it is the second most popular typeface on Google Fonts.

Curiously, it is paired with Lato on the website, also a well-regarded open-source font, but these typefaces have such little contrast between them that it almost seems something is off at first glance¹.