Style combination · Contrasts

Andean Woven Graphic Systems × Diné Weaving Design

Both build stepped geometry on the thread grid. Andean cloth repeats and distorts a figure across cells and columns, while a Diné rug is one planned symmetrical field around a centre, so choose one structural logic.

From the research on Diné (Navajo) Weaving Design

Mix them and make something Andean Woven Graphic Systems Diné Weaving Design

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Andean Woven Graphic Systems, their arrangement from Andean Woven Graphic Systems, the finish from Andean Woven Graphic Systems. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

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.

Andean Woven Graphic Systems Diné (Navajo) Weaving Design

Type from Diné Weaving Design
Colour from Diné Weaving Design: Earth & mineral
Flat fields
Form from Andean Woven Graphic Systems: Rectilinear
Folk & sacred symbols
Composition from Andean Woven Graphic Systems: Modular grid
Repetition & rhythm

Diné Weaving Design avoids modular grid: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
Surface from Andean Woven Graphic Systems: Flat

The type

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

Display · Diné Weaving Design

Grace

Pixelify Sans, standing in for Stepped capitals built on the weft grid when a title has to share the woven field, such as Silkscreen or another pixel face drawn on the same square grid

Text · Andean Woven Graphic Systems

The graphic systems of Andean cloth, the region's most prestigious medium, in which every motif is built on the warp-and-weft grid. Wari tapestry tunics repeat staff-bearers and profile heads in columns, compressing and rotating them toward the edges until figure turns into geometry. Inca state cloth reduced design to t'oqapu, square cells of geometric signs granted as marks of rank, and living Quechua and Aymara weaving bands named pallay motifs between stripes.

Fira Sans; Andean Woven Graphic Systems used T'oqapu cells as a sign set standing where lettering would and Grid-built letterforms that share the woven cell, such as bitmap faces like Silkscreen

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Diné Weaving Design, with a counter-accent from Andean Woven Graphic Systems. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Andean Woven Graphic Systems Diné (Navajo) Weaving Design

#ede6d6 ground · 36%
#1c1814 ink · 14%
#d8682a accent · 18%
#d9a62e accent · 14%
#a3201c accent · 10%
#27375e accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ede6d6;
  --ink: #1c1814;
  --accent-1: #d8682a;
  --accent-2: #d9a62e;
  --accent-3: #a3201c;
  --accent-4: #27375e;
  --font-display: "Pixelify Sans", monospace;
  --font-text: "Fira Sans", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Andean Woven Graphic Systems: Andean textile motifs are living cultural property: pallay designs are named and taught within particular Quechua and Aymara communities, regional styles such as Jalq'a and Tarabuco mark community identity, and Inca t'oqapu were state-controlled insignia of rank. Do not lift motifs from museum tunics or market weavings onto products as generic 'Inca pattern'. Commission weavers through community-run organisations such as the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco, pay and credit them, and record which community each motif comes from.

Diné (Navajo) Weaving Design: Diné weaving is a living craft, taught within families and tied to the Diné account of Spider Woman, who taught the first weavers to build the loom. It has also been suggested that the Diné learned weaving from Pueblo neighbours, though how far is uncertain; give the Diné account first. Yeibichai and sandpainting designs depict Holy People from healing ceremonies, and weaving them was controversial within the Navajo community even when Hastiin Klah, himself a ceremonial singer, did it. Do not reproduce Yei or sandpainting imagery. Diné weavers may leave a spirit line (Ch'ihónít'i), a deliberate break through a border that gives spiritual elements a way out of the textile; it is their practice, so do not add a spirit line or any 'meaning' to a design as decoration. Do not sell printed or machine-made 'Navajo pattern' as Indian-made: the US Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 prohibits that. The Navajo Nation also holds trademarks in the name 'Navajo', registered since 1943. It sued Urban Outfitters in 2012 over 'Navajo' and 'Navaho' product lines, and the case was settled in 2016 with a supply and licence agreement. Do not label non-Diné products or patterns 'Navajo'; the Nation expects companies to ask its permission before using its name, designs or motifs. Commission, pay and credit Diné weavers by name rather than copying their rugs, for example through the Crownpoint Rug Auction, run since 1968, with breaks, by a community organisation of weavers and volunteers.

The two styles

Vertical patterned bands contain blocky cream and mustard long-necked animals, large spread-wing birds, stylised flowers, and stepped diamonds and zigzags. Rust red, mustard yellow, dark blue, green, brown and cream shapes have a visibly woven texture.

c. 600–present · Latin America & Caribbean Andean Woven Graphic Systems The graphic systems of Andean cloth, the region's most prestigious medium, in which every motif is built on the warp-and-weft grid. Wari tapestry tunics repeat staff-bearers and profile heads in columns, compressing and rotating them toward the edges until figure turns into geometry. Inca state cloth reduced design to t'oqapu, square cells of geometric signs granted as marks of rank, and living Quechua and Aymara weaving bands named pallay motifs between stripes.

A rug-like geometric poster features symmetrical stepped diamonds, zigzags and cross motifs in rust red, orange, navy, cream, gray and black. The word “BALANCE” sits inside a large cream diamond at the center, surrounded by patterned borders.

1700–present · North America Diné (Navajo) Weaving Design The tapestry-woven design tradition of Diné (Navajo) weavers, recorded in Spanish sources from the early 18th century. Each design is planned as one symmetrical field and built weft by weft, so every diagonal steps. Striped blankets came first, some with terraced diamonds by 1804. After Bosque Redondo came eyedazzlers, Saltillo-derived serrated diamonds in bright Germantown yarn. Then came bordered trading-post rugs, some modelled on Oriental rugs, in regional codes such as Two Grey Hills and Ganado red. Contemporary tapestry artists such as DY Begay extend it into landscape and abstraction.

More combinations

With Andean Woven Graphic Systems

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