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 Poetism's lettering (Constructivist grotesques mixed across playful sizes, letters allowed to behave as images) 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 Poetism (Two vivid inks, typically red with black or blue, on warm book paper).
- 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.
- Poetism Building the page with pure constructivist severity drops the lyric play between word and image, leaving engineering rather than a poem.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from The New Typography (Layout, 1920s–1930s) and its accent from Poetism (Style, 1923–1934). Structural cues: Asymmetry; Sans-serif type; Photography; Functional white space. Accent cues, used sparingly: Photomontage juxtaposed with type; Compositions of circles and diagonals; Two vivid, restricted colours; Typography as poetry. 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: Two vivid inks, typically red with black or blue, on warm book paper. Mood: Trust, Technology, Exhilaration, Intimacy. 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.
- Poetism 1923–1934 / Style / Avant-garde
The programme of the Czech avant-garde group Devětsil, extending poetry onto the page and into life itself. Its 'picture poems' combining photomontage with type, its compositions of circles and diagonals, and its vivid two-colour printing turned poetry books, magazines and posters into one continuous field of experiment.
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