Style combination · Contrasts

Belle Époque Lithographic Poster × Cuban Tobacco Lithography

Both are colour lithography of the same decades, but the Paris poster puts one figure on a wall at a distance, while the cigar label packs medals, arms and views into a matched set read in the hand; borrow the poster's single figure when a label grows too crowded.

From the research on Cuban Tobacco Lithography (Habilitaciones & Marquillas)

Mix them and make something Belle Époque Lithographic Poster Cuban Tobacco Lithography

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Cuban Tobacco Lithography, their arrangement from Cuban Tobacco Lithography, the finish from Belle Époque Lithographic Poster. 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.

Belle Époque Lithographic Poster Cuban Tobacco Lithography (Habilitaciones & Marquillas)

Type from Cuban Tobacco Lithography: Ornamented display
Hand-lettering
Colour from Belle Époque Lithographic Poster: Flat fields
Primary triad
Form from Cuban Tobacco Lithography: Naturalistic depiction
Abundant decoration
Composition from Cuban Tobacco Lithography: Central symmetry
Framed panels
Surface from Belle Époque Lithographic Poster: Grain & noise
Painterly brushwork

The type

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

Display · Cuban Tobacco Lithography

Wow

Elsie; Cuban Tobacco Lithography used Shaded, outlined and inline display capitals drawn by the lithographers and marquistas on the stone; J. R. Bermúdez (La imagen constante, 2000, quoted by Calzadilla) credits their wide repertoire of letters and ornaments with influencing type founders and sign painters and Brand and factory names on banners, ribbons and cartouches

Text · Belle Époque Lithographic Poster

The large colour lithographic street poster that turned Paris into an open-air gallery, from Jules Chéret's first posters of 1866 to Leonetto Cappiello before the First World War. One dominant, animated figure, flat or vaporous colour printed from a few stones, and lettering drawn by the artist directly on the stone sell cabarets, spectacles, drinks and bicycles at a glance.

Bodoni Moda; Belle Époque Lithographic Poster used Artist's lettering drawn directly on the lithographic stone and Chéret's bouncing, irregular display capitals

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Belle Époque Lithographic Poster, with a counter-accent from Cuban Tobacco Lithography. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Belle Époque Lithographic Poster Cuban Tobacco Lithography (Habilitaciones & Marquillas)

#1b1a1a ground · 36%
#f3e7c9 ink · 14%
#f0b62b accent · 18%
#b51f2e accent · 14%
#c9a23f accent · 10%
#2b4f8c accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #1b1a1a;
  --ink: #f3e7c9;
  --accent-1: #f0b62b;
  --accent-2: #b51f2e;
  --accent-3: #c9a23f;
  --accent-4: #2b4f8c;
  --font-display: "Elsie", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Bodoni Moda", serif;
}

Use it with care

Cuban Tobacco Lithography (Habilitaciones & Marquillas): Many marquillas trade in racist caricature: series such as 'Vida y muerte de la mulata' sexualise mixed-race women and mock Black Cubans in bozal speech, and some labels show enslaved workers on tobacco estates or bare-breasted 'aboriginal' women as exotic decoration; do not reproduce these figures as period charm. Names and dressings such as H. Upmann, Partagás, Punch and Romeo y Julieta are live Habanos trademarks, so draw new marks rather than copying them, and treat images of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, Cuba's patron saint, as devotional, not decorative.