Style combination · Pairs well

Art Deco × Egyptian Cigarette Packaging

Move the border bands to stepped, sunburst Deco patterns, as the later Maspero box did, for an interwar version of the tin.

From the research on Egyptian Cigarette Packaging (Cairo Tobacco Houses)

Mix them and make something Art Deco Egyptian Cigarette Packaging

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Egyptian Cigarette Packaging, their arrangement from Art Deco, the finish from Art Deco. 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.

Art Deco Egyptian Cigarette Packaging (Cairo Tobacco Houses)

Type from Egyptian Cigarette Packaging: All caps
Eclectic mixing
Colour from Art Deco: Jewel & metallic
Dark ground
Form from Egyptian Cigarette Packaging: Borders & frames
Emblems & badges
Composition from Art Deco: Central symmetry
Radial & concentric
Surface from Art Deco: Flat

The type

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

Display · Egyptian Cigarette Packaging

Soirée

Bungee Shade, standing in for Shaded, outlined and spurred serif capitals for the maker's name ('M. MELACHRINO & Co.')

Text · Art Deco

The glamorous modern style named after the 1925 Paris Exposition des Arts Décoratifs, which disciplined ornament into geometry: sunbursts, chevrons, stepped forms and sleek stylised figures rendered in lacquer-smooth colour with metallic accents. In Cassandre's and Colin's posters, fashion magazines, cinemas and luxury packaging it spoke of speed, travel, jazz and wealth.

Jost; Art Deco used Broadway and Bifur

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Art Deco, with a counter-accent from Egyptian Cigarette Packaging. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Art Deco Egyptian Cigarette Packaging (Cairo Tobacco Houses)

#111111 ground · 36%
#f1e6cf ink · 14%
#c9a227 accent · 18%
#c8322a accent · 14%
#8c1c26 accent · 10%
#0f5c55 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #111111;
  --ink: #f1e6cf;
  --accent-1: #c9a227;
  --accent-2: #c8322a;
  --accent-3: #8c1c26;
  --accent-4: #0f5c55;
  --font-display: "Bungee Shade", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Egyptian Cigarette Packaging (Cairo Tobacco Houses): These boxes sold an Orientalist fantasy of Egypt to Western smokers: the turbaned pipe smoker and the jewelled odalisque are stereotypes, and pharaonic gods and statues were turned into trade marks, so do not reuse them as neutral 'Egyptian' decoration or as a picture of Egyptian life. The crescent and star (an Ottoman and Egyptian state emblem, now widely read as a sign of Islam) and the Arabic inscriptions are state and religious signs, not ornament: do not scatter them or fake Arabic lettering as exotic texture. Tobacco branding is now restricted by advertising bans and plain-packaging laws in many countries, so do not use the style to make real cigarette packs look attractive, and Camel is a live trade mark: draw new marks rather than copying any brand's crest or name.