Style combination · Pairs well

Belle Époque Lithographic Poster × Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Use the flat silhouette and keyline of ukiyo-e inside a lithographic poster, as Toulouse-Lautrec did, to read at a distance.

From the research on Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Mix them and make something Belle Époque Lithographic Poster Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Belle Époque Lithographic Poster, their arrangement from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints, the finish from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints. 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 Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Type from Belle Époque Lithographic Poster: Hand-lettering
Ornamented display
Colour from Belle Époque Lithographic Poster: Flat fields
Primary triad
Form from Belle Époque Lithographic Poster: Stylised figuration
Restrained accents
Composition from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints: Dynamic asymmetry
Diagonal axis
Surface from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints: Carved line
Paper & letterpress bite

The type

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

Display · Belle Époque Lithographic Poster

Rose

Ultra, standing in for Fat-face and Clarendon poster capitals inherited from letterpress bills

Text · Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Mass-produced Edo-period woodblock prints of actors, courtesans, legends and landscapes, designed by an artist, cut and printed by specialist craftsmen and sold cheaply by commercial publishers. Flat colour blocks inside a carved keyline, bold cropping, high or oblique viewpoints and diagonal compositions, with titles in small cartouches, later handed Europe a new model for the poster.

Shippori Mincho; Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints used Brush-written kana and kanji titles and Kantei-ryū kabuki lettering

The colours

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

Belle Époque Lithographic Poster Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

#1b1a1a ground · 36%
#f3e7c9 ink · 14%
#f0b62b accent · 18%
#c64a2d accent · 14%
#2b4f8c accent · 10%
#7d8a3a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #1b1a1a;
  --ink: #f3e7c9;
  --accent-1: #f0b62b;
  --accent-2: #c64a2d;
  --accent-3: #2b4f8c;
  --accent-4: #7d8a3a;
  --font-display: "Ultra", serif;
  --font-text: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
}

The two styles

A dark-haired woman with red flowers in her hair dances in a flowing red dress, raising a tambourine against a golden sunburst beneath the large red word “SOLARA.” Trees frame a distant domed city skyline and an illuminated arched bridge over blue water.

1866–1914 · Western Europe 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.

An enormous hawk with raised wings and extended talons swoops over a rough sea with a small sailboat and rocky islands. Pine-covered cliffs and a Japanese-style building frame the right side, with a mountain, red sun and vertical Japanese lettering in the background.

1670–1900 · East Asia Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints Mass-produced Edo-period woodblock prints of actors, courtesans, legends and landscapes, designed by an artist, cut and printed by specialist craftsmen and sold cheaply by commercial publishers. Flat colour blocks inside a carved keyline, bold cropping, high or oblique viewpoints and diagonal compositions, with titles in small cartouches, later handed Europe a new model for the poster.

More combinations

With Belle Époque Lithographic Poster

All 11 combinations with Belle Époque Lithographic Poster

With Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

All 15 combinations with Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Every style combination