Style combination · Contrasts
Art Deco × Bauhaus
Deco used the same circles and stepped forms for luxury; set its gold and ornament beside Bauhaus austerity to choose function over glamour.
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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.
Art Deco Bauhaus
- Type from Bauhaus
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Art Deco avoids lowercase only: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
- Colour from Bauhaus
- Form from Art Deco
- Composition from Art Deco
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Bauhaus avoids central symmetry: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
- Surface from Art Deco
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The type
Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.
Text · Bauhaus
The German school founded by Walter Gropius in 1919 moved from Expressionist craft ideals to a programme of 'art and technology' after 1923, when Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer and Joost Schmidt made its printing and advertising workshops a laboratory for functional communication. Its graphics combine geometric sans-serif and lowercase type, bold rules, primary colours and basic shapes with photography in asymmetric, systematic layouts.
Jost; Bauhaus used Herbert Bayer's Universal alphabet and Josef Albers's stencil and combination alphabets
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The colours
The ground and leading colours come from Bauhaus, with a counter-accent from Art Deco. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.
Art Deco Bauhaus
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#f2efe6ground · 36% -
#121212ink · 14% -
#f2c12eaccent · 18% -
#c9a227accent · 14% -
#d7261eaccent · 10% -
#8c1c26accent · 8%
As CSS
:root {
--ground: #f2efe6;
--ink: #121212;
--accent-1: #f2c12e;
--accent-2: #c9a227;
--accent-3: #d7261e;
--accent-4: #8c1c26;
--font-display: "Jost", sans-serif;
--font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}04
The two styles
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More combinations
With Art Deco
- Googie & Atomic Age Pairs well · Googie's atomic starbursts extend Deco's celestial ornament; mix them for retro hospitality and signage.
- Punk & DIY Zine Contrasts · Puncture Deco polish with a single torn, photocopied edge when luxury needs irony.
- Art Nouveau Contrasts · Deco straightened Nouveau's whiplash; place a rigid sunburst beside one sinuous curve to show the evolution.
- Streamline Moderne Pairs well · Fold Streamline speed lines and rounded corners into a Deco layout to move from stepped geometry toward aerodynamic sweep.
- Basel Object Poster (Swiss Sachplakat) Contrasts · A source as well as a foil: Leupin studied at the École Paul Colin in Paris in 1935-36 and took strong impressions from Colin and from Colin's rival Cassandre. Both make a product a heroic icon, but Deco stylises it into a geometric silhouette with airbrushed gradation and geometric capitals, while Basel paints the real object, its material and its label, as a still life.
- Estridentismo (Stridentist) Graphics Pairs well · Both drew the 1920s skyline; pair Deco's setback towers and block display letters with Stridentist black-and-white relief for a skyscraper poster with a rougher, revolutionary edge.
- Vienna Secession Pairs well · Carry the Secession's squares, chequers and gold into Deco's stepped geometry for a luxurious but disciplined look.
- Greek Tourism Modernism (EOT) Contrasts · Katzourakis studied poster design under Paul Colin in Paris; set a Deco travel poster's heroic, airbrushed destination beside this flat, cut-out sign to show how the tourist poster was stripped down after the war.
With Bauhaus
- Memphis Design Contrasts · Memphis parodied Bauhaus primaries and solids; compare them to decide whether geometry should be earnest or ironic.
- Neo-Swiss Revival Pairs well · Neo-Swiss identities absorb Bauhaus primitives and lowercase easily for a contemporary system with historic depth.
- Scandinavian Functionalism Pairs well · Soften Bauhaus geometry with Scandinavian warmth and natural materials for approachable functional design.