Stylogeny combining Batik Pattern Tradition × Islamic Geometric

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Style combination · Pairs well

Batik Pattern Tradition × Islamic Geometric

Coastal batik already absorbs Arabic script and geometric lattices; combine the two for pattern that is both structured and hand-made.

From the research on Batik Pattern Tradition

Mix them and make something Batik Pattern Tradition Islamic Geometric

CalmBatik Pattern × Islamic Geometric1600 · 690
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Islamic Geometric, their arrangement from Batik Pattern Tradition, the finish from Batik Pattern Tradition. 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.

Batik Pattern Tradition Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition

Type from Islamic Geometric
Colour from Batik Pattern Tradition
Form from Islamic Geometric
Composition from Batik Pattern Tradition
Surface from Batik Pattern Tradition

02

The type

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

Display · Islamic Geometric

Calm

Reem Kufi, standing in for Kufic (including square bannāʾī Kufic)

Text · Batik Pattern Tradition

The Javanese wax-resist textile tradition in which hot wax is drawn with a canting or stamped with a copper cap, then dyed in successive baths to build layered all-over patterns. Court batik of Yogyakarta and Surakarta keeps to indigo, soga brown and cream with diagonal parang and four-lobed kawung repeats; north-coast batik absorbs Chinese, Dutch and Arab motifs in brighter colour.

EB Garamond; Batik Pattern Tradition used Arabic calligraphy of batik besurek (Bengkulu) and Cirebon and Signed Latin script of batik Belanda workshops

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Batik Pattern Tradition, with a counter-accent from Islamic Geometric. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Batik Pattern Tradition Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition

  • #2a1c14 ground · 36%
  • #ecdcbc ink · 14%
  • #a6322b accent · 18%
  • #c8a046 accent · 14%
  • #2c6aa0 accent · 10%
  • #6b3e1e accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #2a1c14;
  --ink: #ecdcbc;
  --accent-1: #a6322b;
  --accent-2: #c8a046;
  --accent-3: #2c6aa0;
  --accent-4: #6b3e1e;
  --font-display: "Reem Kufi", cursive;
  --font-text: "EB Garamond", serif;
}

Use it with care

Batik Pattern Tradition: Batik is inscribed by UNESCO as Indonesian intangible cultural heritage (2009), and some court motifs such as parang rusak were historically reserved for royalty and carry philosophical meanings. Learn a motif's meaning before using it, credit the region and makers, and do not market printed batik-look fabric as hand-drawn or stamped batik.

Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition: Qur'anic verses, the names of God and the Prophet and other sacred phrases must not be cropped, distorted, mirrored, used as texture or printed on floors, footwear or throwaway packaging; have any Arabic-script text read and approved by a fluent reader or calligrapher. Abstract geometric pattern is far less sensitive than script, but credit the traditions and makers it comes from.

04

The two styles

A dense repeating botanical pattern features rust-red flowers, indigo leaves, brown curling fronds, and cream leafy stems arranged in flowing diagonal bands. Fine dotted details and branching crackle lines give the flat design a batik-like appearance. 1600–present · Southeast Asia Batik Pattern Tradition The Javanese wax-resist textile tradition in which hot wax is drawn with a canting or stamped with a copper cap, then dyed in successive baths to build layered all-over patterns. Court batik of Yogyakarta and Surakarta keeps to indigo, soga brown and cream with diagonal parang and four-lobed kawung repeats; north-coast batik absorbs Chinese, Dutch and Arab motifs in brighter colour. An all-over geometric pattern combines blue star-shaped rosettes, turquoise leafy flourishes, and small rust-red diamonds on a near-black ground. Cream and gold interlacing bands connect and outline the repeating motifs. c. 690–present · Middle East & North Africa, South Asia, Southern Europe Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition A visual system shared across the Islamic world in which proportioned calligraphy, compass-and-straightedge geometry and the vegetal arabesque carry meaning and beauty in place of figurative imagery. Star-and-polygon tilings repeat across whole surfaces as if continuing beyond the frame, while Kufic, Thuluth and Naskh inscriptions give hierarchy to buildings, manuscripts and objects.

05

More combinations

With Batik Pattern Tradition

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With Islamic Geometric

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