Stylogeny combining Arts × Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints

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Style combination · Pairs well

Arts × Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints

The parent tradition: both fill a repeat with plants on linen, but Morris is symmetrical, earthy and dense with dark grounds, Frank is looser, brighter and mostly light. Pair a Morris-style framed book page with Frank-style endpapers.

From the research on Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints

Mix them and make something Arts Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints

RoseArts × Josef Frank1860 · 1934
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Arts, their arrangement from Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints, the finish from Arts. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

01

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.

Arts & Crafts Movement Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints

Type from Arts
Colour from Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints
Form from Arts
Composition from Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints
Surface from Arts

02

The type

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

Display · Arts

Rose

EB Garamond; Arts used Golden Type and Troy and Chaucer

Text · Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints

The linens Josef Frank drew for Svenskt Tenn, which still prints them: invented trees, flowers, fruit and birds, even a map of Manhattan, packed edge to edge in long repeats and many clear colours, mostly on white or natural linen. The plants are outlined, stylised but recognisable, loose and asymmetric. Frank meant different patterns to be mixed in one room, against the cold purity of functionalism; his 1958 essay "Accidentism" later named the idea: rooms should look as if they had come about by chance. Unlike Marimekko's single enlarged motif, Frank keeps many small motifs and colours.

Schibsted Grotesk; Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints used Lettering drawn inside the repeat, such as the grey banners naming 'MANHATTAN' that run through the Manhattan print and The printed selvedge mark naming pattern, designer and maker, such as 'La Plata Komp. Av Josef Frank Svenskt Tenn Stockholm'

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints, with a counter-accent from Arts. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Arts & Crafts Movement Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints

  • #f4efe3 ground · 36%
  • #1f4f8f ink · 14%
  • #e3a92b accent · 18%
  • #a33224 accent · 14%
  • #d77a9a accent · 10%
  • #2f6e45 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f4efe3;
  --ink: #1f4f8f;
  --accent-1: #e3a92b;
  --accent-2: #a33224;
  --accent-3: #d77a9a;
  --accent-4: #2f6e45;
  --font-display: "EB Garamond", serif;
  --font-text: "Schibsted Grotesk", sans-serif;
}

04

The two styles

An ornate botanical design surrounds a large blank cream oval, with curling green leaves and red, blue, and ochre flowers. Two blue-and-yellow birds face inward near the top, and a narrow leafy border has square floral decorations at all four corners. 1860–1920 · Western Europe, North America Arts & Crafts Movement A British-led reform movement that answered industrial shoddiness with honest handcraft, medieval models and the ideal of joy in labour. In graphic design it is embodied by William Morris's Kelmscott Press: dark Jenson-derived and gothic types, handmade paper, and wood-engraved borders and initials dense with stylised foliage, treating the book as one integrated, hand-made object. A cream-ground illustrated poster is densely filled with winding green foliage, colorful flowers, lemons, berries, birds, spotted animals, and people relaxing in summer clothes. Red lettering reading “Sunny Days” appears near the upper right, above a small blue table with a pitcher and fruit beside a red chair. 1934–present · Northern Europe Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints The linens Josef Frank drew for Svenskt Tenn, which still prints them: invented trees, flowers, fruit and birds, even a map of Manhattan, packed edge to edge in long repeats and many clear colours, mostly on white or natural linen. The plants are outlined, stylised but recognisable, loose and asymmetric. Frank meant different patterns to be mixed in one room, against the cold purity of functionalism; his 1958 essay "Accidentism" later named the idea: rooms should look as if they had come about by chance. Unlike Marimekko's single enlarged motif, Frank keeps many small motifs and colours.

05

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