Stylogeny combining Afrofuturist Design × Harlem Renaissance Graphic Art

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Style combination · Pairs well

Afrofuturist Design × Harlem Renaissance Graphic Art

Carry Douglas's Egyptian profiles and radiating light into a jewel-dark cosmos for a Black futurism that knows its own lineage.

From the research on Harlem Renaissance Graphic Art

Aaron Douglas's Egyptian profiles and radiating bands of light are an early Black modernist vision; borrow his stepped light for cosmic scenes that acknowledge their lineage.

From the research on Afrofuturist Design

Mix them and make something Afrofuturist Design Harlem Renaissance Graphic Art

RISEAfrofuturist Design × Harlem Renaissance
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Afrofuturist Design, their arrangement from Afrofuturist Design, the finish from Afrofuturist Design. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

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What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Afrofuturist Design Harlem Renaissance Graphic Art

Type from Harlem Renaissance Graphic Art
Colour from Harlem Renaissance Graphic Art
Form from Afrofuturist Design
Composition from Afrofuturist Design
Surface from Afrofuturist Design

02

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Harlem Renaissance Graphic Art

Rise

Limelight, standing in for Aaron Douglas's hand-lettered Deco capitals on jackets and covers

Text · Afrofuturist Design

A visual language of Black futures that fuses African and diasporic iconography (pyramids and ankhs, Adinkra and Nsibidi glyphs, textile patterning) with spacecraft, cosmic fields and technology. From Sun Ra's Saturn records and Parliament-Funkadelic's comic-book sleeves to the Wakanda of Black Panther, it uses regal central figures, jewel and metallic colour on deep-space grounds, and pattern as technology to imagine liberation beyond history.

Jost; Afrofuturist Design used Wakandan script and Hand-lettered comix titling

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Harlem Renaissance Graphic Art, with a counter-accent from Afrofuturist Design. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Afrofuturist Design Harlem Renaissance Graphic Art

  • #efe5cf ground · 36%
  • #161210 ink · 14%
  • #e3782b accent · 18%
  • #c2185b accent · 14%
  • #d6b44a accent · 10%
  • #00a6a6 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #efe5cf;
  --ink: #161210;
  --accent-1: #e3782b;
  --accent-2: #c2185b;
  --accent-3: #d6b44a;
  --accent-4: #00a6a6;
  --font-display: "Limelight", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Afrofuturist Design: Afrofuturism is a self-authored vision of Black futures that draws on meaning-bearing symbols (Adinkra, Nsibidi, Kemetic and textile motifs) tied to specific peoples. Use glyphs for what they mean rather than as generic 'tribal' texture, and commission, credit or collaborate with Black and African designers.

Harlem Renaissance Graphic Art: Douglas built this idiom so that Black artists could picture Black history against minstrel caricature and white primitivist fantasy. Lifted as generic Jazz Age or 'tribal' decoration, the Egyptian profiles, mask-like eyes and black silhouettes can slide back into the stereotypes it answered, so use it to tell Black stories with Black artists and writers, and credit Douglas and the magazines (The Crisis, Opportunity) whose images you draw on.

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The two styles

A woman with a star-filled afro, elaborate gold jewelry and purple-and-turquoise robes raises her open hands beneath the gold title “SOLARA.” Planets, flying saucers, celestial symbols and futuristic towers with waterfalls surround her, with a sunlit waterway pictured down the center of her robes. 1970–present · North America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Global / networked Afrofuturist Design A visual language of Black futures that fuses African and diasporic iconography (pyramids and ankhs, Adinkra and Nsibidi glyphs, textile patterning) with spacecraft, cosmic fields and technology. From Sun Ra's Saturn records and Parliament-Funkadelic's comic-book sleeves to the Wakanda of Black Panther, it uses regal central figures, jewel and metallic colour on deep-space grounds, and pattern as technology to imagine liberation beyond history. A black, angular figure with braided hair faces right while holding a purple book against their chest, surrounded by purple sun rays, factory buildings, smokestacks, and a tall leafy stalk on a golden-yellow background. The word “RENEWAL” spans the top, and a decorative strip of two birds, a sun, and zigzags runs along the bottom. 1925–1940 · North America Harlem Renaissance Graphic Art The illustration, cover and jacket art of the New Negro movement, set by Aaron Douglas after he moved to Harlem in 1925 and studied with Winold Reiss. Flat, hard-edged silhouettes of Black figures, with Egyptian-profile heads and mask-like eyes, stand among skyscrapers, palms, pyramids and radiating shafts of light. Art Deco geometry fuses with African sculpture to picture Black history, faith and modern urban life with dignity.

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