Compose two styles
Rather than blending two styles into a middle, this assigns them roles: one carries the structure, the other appears as an accent. Where the two fight, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow The New Typography: Drop centering, set a left axis, divide areas with rules and space
- Type
- Set in The New Typography's manner (One sans in two weights, with hierarchy carried by size alone), and let Penguin Cover System's lettering (One serif face fixed, size and leading unchanged across every volume) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in The New Typography's material (Black and red, halftone photography, plain rules, no ornament); bring in exactly one thing from Penguin Cover System (Ground colors limited to the categories, one paper stock throughout).
- Colour
- Build on #eee9dc, #d22f26, #1e1d1a and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
These two are already listed as related, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- The New Typography When asymmetry becomes the aim in itself the reading order is never settled, and the page ends up harder to read than the ornamented one it replaced.
- Penguin Cover System Making an exception for each title breaks the premise that the system is the product and the shelf stops reading.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from The New Typography (Layout, 1920s–1930s) and its accent from Penguin Cover System (Style, 1935–). Structural cues: Asymmetry; Sans-serif type; Photography; Functional white space. Accent cues, used sparingly: Color-coded bands; Rigorous composition rules; The Marber grid; Consistency as a series. Composition: Drop centering, set a left axis, divide areas with rules and space. Type and lettering: One sans in two weights, with hierarchy carried by size alone. Let one material quality come from the second style: Ground colors limited to the categories, one paper stock throughout. Mood: Trust, Technology, Exhilaration, Calm, Play. Color: build on #eee9dc, #d22f26, #1e1d1a with a single accent drawn from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615. Constraints: do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. Produce an original composition in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- The New Typography 1920s–1930s / Layout / Experimental Typography
Turned printed matter into rational information structure through asymmetry, sans-serifs, photography and functional hierarchy.
- Penguin Cover System 1935– / Style / Publishing and Editing
From the tripartite color bands of the first covers through Tschichold's composition rules to Marber's ruled grid, Penguin kept reinventing the cover as a design system. The paperback became a textbook of modern design.
Share this pairing:https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=new-typography+penguin-covers