Style combination · Pairs well

Arab Independent Comics × Risograph

Samandal printed Topia (2017) by Risograph, and Lab619 planned its ninth issue in a 2017 residency, to be printed by Risograph and bound by hand; add two or three translucent riso inks to a black-ink anthology for its cover or centrefold, but keep the dialect lettering and the many hands.

From the research on Arab Independent Comics (Samandal, TokTok, Lab619, Skefkef)

Mix them and make something Arab Independent Comics Risograph

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Arab Independent Comics, their arrangement from Arab Independent Comics, the finish from Risograph. 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.

Arab Independent Comics (Samandal, TokTok, Lab619, Skefkef) Risograph & Indie Print Culture

Type from Arab Independent Comics: Hand-lettering
Eclectic mixing
Colour from Risograph: Limited spot colours
Fluorescent & neon
Form from Arab Independent Comics: Distortion & exaggeration
Stylised figuration
Composition from Arab Independent Comics: Framed panels
Sequential narrative
Surface from Risograph: Misregistration & overprint
Grain & noise

The type

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

Display · Arab Independent Comics

Fiesta

Rakkas, standing in for Hand-lettered colloquial Arabic balloons (Egyptian ʿāmmiyya in TokTok and Garage, Tunisian in Lab619, Moroccan darija, with Amazigh, in Skefkef)

Text · Risograph

A contemporary culture of zines, art books, posters and prints made on Japanese Risograph stencil duplicators, whose soy-based spot inks (fluorescent pink, yellow, blue, teal) are laid down one drum at a time. Designers embrace the machine's limits: translucent overprints, slight misregistration, grainy coverage and coarse halftones give flat illustration and type a warm, handmade vibrancy at low cost.

Inter; Risograph used Neo-grotesques set large and Monospace and typewriter faces

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Risograph, with a counter-accent from Arab Independent Comics. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Arab Independent Comics (Samandal, TokTok, Lab619, Skefkef) Risograph & Indie Print Culture

#f4f1ea ground · 36%
#3255a4 ink · 14%
#ff48b0 accent · 18%
#f0c419 accent · 14%
#f15060 accent · 10%
#00838a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f4f1ea;
  --ink: #3255a4;
  --accent-1: #ff48b0;
  --accent-2: #f0c419;
  --accent-3: #f15060;
  --accent-4: #00838a;
  --font-display: "Rakkas", cursive;
  --font-text: "Inter", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Arab Independent Comics (Samandal, TokTok, Lab619, Skefkef): These are living, named artists working under real censorship: Samandal's editors were prosecuted and fined over two comics, and an Egyptian cartoonist was arrested in January 2016, so never attribute invented political or religious satire to a real artist or collective, and never ask an image model for their work by name. Draw the contemporary city life these artists draw, not Orientalist shorthand: no camels, veiled women, sheikhs or gunmen as stand-ins for 'Arab', and no pseudo-Arabic squiggles. Have every line of dialect Arabic, Darija or Amazigh written or checked by a fluent speaker; if no fluent reader can check it, leave the balloons empty or letter them in Latin script only. Do not borrow the religious and sectarian jokes as edgy decoration outside the communities that made them.