Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, 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 Swiss's lettering (Neutral sans-serif; be bold with size contrast) 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 Swiss (White space and objective photographs; almost no ornament).
- Colour
- Build on #eee9dc, #d22f26, #1e1d1a and admit one accent from #f1efe8, #ed3b22, #121210.
Where they fight
These are already listed as related entries, 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.
- Swiss Too much tidiness turns anonymous. Keep one strong jump in scale.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from The New Typography (layout, 1920s–1930s) and their accent from Swiss (style, 1950s–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing The New Typography exists for: rebuilding letterheads and forms so they read in order without ornament, or fixing the hierarchy of headline, text and picture in a single decision. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from The New Typography - Asymmetry - Sans-serif type - Photography - Functional white space 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. ## Accent comes from Swiss, used sparingly - Strict grid - Sans-serif type - Asymmetry - Objective photography Let one material quality come from it: White space and objective photographs; almost no ornament. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #eee9dc, carry the structure in #d22f26 and #1e1d1a, and let a single accent come from #ed3b22. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: trust, technique, exhilaration, calm. ## What goes wrong - 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. - Swiss: Too much tidiness turns anonymous. Keep one strong jump in scale. ## Across the four Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture. ## Constraints - Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. - Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work. - Produce original compositions 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.
- Swiss 1950s– / Style / Functionalism
Puts order front and center and makes the information itself the protagonist.
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