De Stijl vs Swiss

デ・ステイル / スイス・スタイル

De Stijl comes from Geometric Abstraction and Swiss from Functionalism. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

De Stijl

De Stijl — De Stijl magazine, vol. 4 no. 3 front cover, 1921 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainDe Stijl — リートフェルト シュレーダー邸 1924 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainDe Stijl — リートフェルト 赤と青の椅子 1918 — Wikimedia Commons / CC0

Restricts the vocabulary to vertical, horizontal and primary color, building universal order from balance.

Swiss

Swiss — Josef Müller-Brockmann《Beethoven》ポスター 1955 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0Swiss — Josef Müller-Brockmann《Musica Viva》ポスター — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainSwiss — Josef Müller-Brockmann《der Film》ポスター — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Puts order front and center and makes the information itself the protagonist.

De StijlSwiss
Era1917–19311950s–
FamilyGeometric AbstractionFunctionalism
KindStyleStyle
CuesVertical and horizontal / Red, blue, yellow / White planes / Asymmetric equilibriumStrict grid / Sans-serif type / Asymmetry / Objective photography
Best used forBrand systems that grow from few rules · Uniting abstraction with lucid orderMaking complex information fast to read · Giving an organization rationality and transparency
TypeA rectilinear sans; treat letters as rectangles tooNeutral sans-serif; be bold with size contrast
CompositionDivide the plane with orthogonals; shift the weight off center12-column grid, left-aligned, asymmetric
MaterialWhite, black, primaries; ration the colored planesWhite space and objective photographs; almost no ornament
CautionNot just red-blue-yellow squares. Design the ratios and the asymmetric balance.Too much tidiness turns anonymous. Keep one strong jump in scale.

Put these two together

Geometric Abstraction ／ Functionalism

IndexStyle