Stylogeny combining American Mid-Century Modernism × Vicente Rojo

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Style combination · Contrasts

American Mid-Century Modernism × Vicente Rojo

Both made idea-led covers in the same decades, but American modernists composed asymmetric cut-paper shapes and hand-drawn marks in bright flat colours, while Rojo, who found the US and French advertising manuals he could get in Mexico not to his liking, framed one treated photograph or found vignette on white with a fine rule and Bodoni, Baskerville or Futura, ordering the text with printer's ornaments. Choose Rojo when the type should serve the reading rather than play the joke.

From the research on Vicente Rojo & Mexican Editorial Modernism

Mix them and make something American Mid-Century Modernism Vicente Rojo

A textured poster reading “TIERRA VIVA” combines a large green agave plant with a black-and-cream mountain landscape. A yellow sun, red-orange and blue rectangles, and rows of black dots surround the photographic cutouts.
AI-generated by Stylogeny from the recipe below, and checked against it: the type from American Mid-Century Modernism, the form from Vicente Rojo, the composition from American Mid-Century Modernism. Not a real or historical work.

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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.

American Mid-Century Modernism Vicente Rojo & Mexican Editorial Modernism

Type from American Mid-Century Modernism
Colour from American Mid-Century Modernism
Form from Vicente Rojo
Composition from American Mid-Century Modernism
Surface from Vicente Rojo

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The type

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

Display · American Mid-Century Modernism

Pop

Jost, standing in for Futura

Text · American Mid-Century Modernism

The American synthesis of European avant-garde form with wit, pragmatism and commercial clients, led by Paul Rand, Alvin Lustig, Lester Beall, Bradbury Thompson and Saul Bass. Asymmetric layouts, cut-paper and collaged shapes, photomontage, playful hand-drawn marks and a few bright flat colours turned book jackets, magazines, advertising, film titles and corporate work into idea-driven visual puns.

Jost; American Mid-Century Modernism used Futura and Bodoni

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from American Mid-Century Modernism, with a counter-accent from Vicente Rojo. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

American Mid-Century Modernism Vicente Rojo & Mexican Editorial Modernism

  • #f2ede1 ground · 36%
  • #1a1a1a ink · 14%
  • #e2a83a accent · 18%
  • #e04a1f accent · 14%
  • #2f5f8a accent · 10%
  • #5c7a3e accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f2ede1;
  --ink: #1a1a1a;
  --accent-1: #e2a83a;
  --accent-2: #e04a1f;
  --accent-3: #2f5f8a;
  --accent-4: #5c7a3e;
  --font-display: "Jost", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Vicente Rojo & Mexican Editorial Modernism: Rojo's covers, his drawn alphabets and the T of his Negaciones paintings are one artist's work: borrow the method (a white ground, a fine rule, the printer's stock, a two-ink treated photograph), not a particular Era cover or his signs, and never present a new design as an Era book. Some covers draw on pre-Hispanic codices (Los indios de México) and Mexican popular imagery (Cien años de soledad); do not lift codex figures as decoration.

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The two styles

A backpacked hiker stands on a steep, black-and-cream rocky summit against a large golden sun, with blue mountain ranges, forests and pale waterways below. Large condensed lettering at the upper left reads “HIGHER GROUND” in black and red. 1940–1970 · North America American Mid-Century Modernism The American synthesis of European avant-garde form with wit, pragmatism and commercial clients, led by Paul Rand, Alvin Lustig, Lester Beall, Bradbury Thompson and Saul Bass. Asymmetric layouts, cut-paper and collaged shapes, photomontage, playful hand-drawn marks and a few bright flat colours turned book jackets, magazines, advertising, film titles and corporate work into idea-driven visual puns. A cream poster headed “TIERRA” in huge black serif letters shows a grainy blue prickly pear cactus and rocky ground in front of a large orange sun. Orange dots, horizontal black and orange bars, and thin vertical lines frame the image. 1953–1990 · Latin America & Caribbean Vicente Rojo & Mexican Editorial Modernism The design of Mexico City's literary and cultural press, shaped from the 1950s by the Barcelona-born exile Vicente Rojo: México en la Cultura, the Revista de la Universidad, Plural, La Jornada and the covers of Ediciones Era. Taught by Miguel Prieto to add nothing beyond what must be read, it sets an image on white inside a fine rule, orders text with the printer's stock (rules, bullets, stars, pointing hands), prints grainy high-contrast photographs in two inks, and keeps design below the text.

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