Stylogeny combining Basel Object Poster × International Typographic Style

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Style combination · Contrasts

Basel Object Poster × International Typographic Style

The style that displaced it in the same cities around 1950: a grid, objective photography and a neutral grotesque instead of one painted object and a hand-lettered name. Set the two side by side to show the shift from crafted illusion to systematic information.

From the research on Basel Object Poster (Swiss Sachplakat)

Mix them and make something Basel Object Poster International Typographic Style

A blue vintage-style road bicycle with a brown leather saddle, cream-wrapped drop handlebars and tan-sided tires fills a cream poster, with its large front wheel cropped at the bottom. Oversized lettering at the upper left reads “Ride” in black and “Farther” in red.
AI-generated by Stylogeny from the recipe below, and checked against it: the type from International Typographic Style, the form from Basel Object Poster, the composition from Basel Object Poster. Not a real or historical work.

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.

Basel Object Poster (Swiss Sachplakat) International Typographic Style

Type from International Typographic Style
Colour from International Typographic Style
Form from Basel Object Poster
Composition from Basel Object Poster
Surface from Basel Object Poster

International Typographic Style avoids skeuomorphic material: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.

02

The type

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

Display · International Typographic Style

Index

Inter Tight, standing in for Akzidenz-Grotesk

Text · Basel Object Poster

The Swiss descendant of the German object poster, made in Zurich and above all Basel from 1919 to the early 1950s. One everyday product (a top hat, a tweed coat, a toothpaste tube, a fountain-pen nib, a match, a curl of butter) is painted larger than life with modelled light, cast shadows and tactile surfaces, set on a plain dark, pale or softly graded ground, with little more than the brand name as text. Rooted in the Neue Sachlichkeit, it raises the product to a quiet, uncanny icon; from about 1940 Leupin and Brun added humour and visual puns.

Fira Sans; Basel Object Poster used Brand name painted on the product and Light italic slogan over a heavy name

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from International Typographic Style, with a counter-accent from Basel Object Poster. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Basel Object Poster (Swiss Sachplakat) International Typographic Style

  • #f2f0e9 ground · 36%
  • #111111 ink · 14%
  • #e1251b accent · 18%
  • #f0c419 accent · 14%
  • #1f4e9c accent · 10%
  • #7a7a7a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f2f0e9;
  --ink: #111111;
  --accent-1: #e1251b;
  --accent-2: #f0c419;
  --accent-3: #1f4e9c;
  --accent-4: #7a7a7a;
  --font-display: "Inter Tight", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Fira Sans", sans-serif;
}

04

The two styles

A large wedge of golden cheese with a dark brown rind marked “ALPINA” and a mountain motif casts a shadow on a cream background. Below it, blue script reads “Pur et vrai” above large red “ALPINA” lettering. 1919–1955 · Central Europe Basel Object Poster (Swiss Sachplakat) The Swiss descendant of the German object poster, made in Zurich and above all Basel from 1919 to the early 1950s. One everyday product (a top hat, a tweed coat, a toothpaste tube, a fountain-pen nib, a match, a curl of butter) is painted larger than life with modelled light, cast shadows and tactile surfaces, set on a plain dark, pale or softly graded ground, with little more than the brand name as text. Rooted in the Neue Sachlichkeit, it raises the product to a quiet, uncanny icon; from about 1940 Leupin and Brun added humour and visual puns. The words “Urban Systems” appear in large black and red lettering at the upper left of an off-white cover. Tall blue, black and grey rectangular blocks rise from the bottom, with fine vertical dividing lines and a red circle at the upper right. 1950–1975 · Central Europe International Typographic Style A post-war refinement of the New Typography in which the mathematical grid, objective photography and neo-grotesque sans-serifs were used to communicate with clarity and neutrality. Taught at the Basel and Zurich schools, it became the default language of international corporate and institutional communication.

05

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