Style combination · Pairs well

Bengali Modernist Book Cover × Kalighat Pat

Reduce the Kalighat contour to a bold, flat brush line, as Bengali cover designers later did, to give modern literary covers a local voice.

From the research on Kalighat Pat & Battala Bazaar Prints

Go back to the Kalighat brush line and Battala woodcut for the figure, then let a drawn Bengali title carry the modern layout.

From the research on Bengali Modernist Book Cover (Prachchhad)

Mix them and make something Bengali Modernist Book Cover Kalighat Pat

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Kalighat Pat, their arrangement from Kalighat Pat, the finish from Kalighat Pat. 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.

Bengali Modernist Book Cover (Prachchhad) Kalighat Pat & Battala Bazaar Prints

Type from Bengali Modernist Book Cover: Hand-lettering
Type as image
Colour from Bengali Modernist Book Cover: Limited spot colours
Flat fields
Form from Kalighat Pat: Stylised figuration
Distortion & exaggeration
Composition from Kalighat Pat: Isolated object
Single focal point
Surface from Kalighat Pat: Painterly brushwork
Carved line

The type

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

Display · Bengali Modernist Book Cover

Wow

Rozha One, standing in for Hand-drawn Bangla (Bengali) display lettering with stretched matra

Text · Kalighat Pat

The bazaar art of nineteenth-century Calcutta: watercolours sold to pilgrims by patua painters at the Kalighat temple, and the cheap woodcuts and metal engravings that Battala presses printed for chapbooks and almanacs. A single plaque-like figure stands on unpainted paper, drawn with one loaded, sweeping brushstroke that both outlines and shades it. Deities share the repertoire with satire of the Westernised babu, domestic scandal and street life.

Archivo; Kalighat Pat used Bengali captions cut into Battala woodblocks and Bengali letterpress text of Battala chapbooks and almanacs

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Bengali Modernist Book Cover, with a counter-accent from Kalighat Pat. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Bengali Modernist Book Cover (Prachchhad) Kalighat Pat & Battala Bazaar Prints

#f1e8d2 ground · 36%
#1a1a1a ink · 14%
#d9a62e accent · 18%
#c23b22 accent · 14%
#a8652a accent · 10%
#22406e accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f1e8d2;
  --ink: #1a1a1a;
  --accent-1: #d9a62e;
  --accent-2: #c23b22;
  --accent-3: #a8652a;
  --accent-4: #22406e;
  --font-display: "Rozha One", serif;
  --font-text: "Archivo", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Kalighat Pat & Battala Bazaar Prints: Many sheets depict Hindu deities that are still worshipped (Kali, Durga, Lakshmi, Krishna), and some were painted for Muslim patrons (Duldul, Imam Husain's horse), so do not distort, crop or place these figures in mocking or disposable contexts. The patua (chitrakar) families of Bengal still practise the art; commission or credit living painters rather than tracing museum images, and name the artist where known.

The two styles

Large blue Bengali brush lettering fills the upper portion of a cream-coloured cover. Below, a black boat with a rust-red sail floats on blue water beside a yellow sun and a distant palm-lined shore.

1943–present · South Asia Bengali Modernist Book Cover (Prachchhad) A literary book-jacket culture that began at Calcutta's Signet Press in 1943, where Satyajit Ray and later Purnendu Pattrea made the hand-drawn Bengali title the main image of the cover. Qayyum Chowdhury and AKM Abdur Rouf carried it on in Dhaka. Stretched and interlocked letters, bold brush contours taken from pata scrolls, Kalighat and alpana, and two or three flat colours on pale stock give poetry, fiction and translations a modern face that is unmistakably Bengali. 1830–1930 · South Asia Kalighat Pat & Battala Bazaar Prints The bazaar art of nineteenth-century Calcutta: watercolours sold to pilgrims by patua painters at the Kalighat temple, and the cheap woodcuts and metal engravings that Battala presses printed for chapbooks and almanacs. A single plaque-like figure stands on unpainted paper, drawn with one loaded, sweeping brushstroke that both outlines and shades it. Deities share the repertoire with satire of the Westernised babu, domestic scandal and street life.