Style combination · Pairs well

Bitmap × Diné Weaving Design

The weft step and the pixel are the same constraint. Draw icons and letters with stepped diagonals on a square grid, and credit the weaving logic rather than lifting particular rug designs.

From the research on Diné (Navajo) Weaving Design

Mix them and make something Bitmap Diné Weaving Design

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Diné Weaving Design, their arrangement from Bitmap, the finish from Bitmap. 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.

Bitmap & Pixel Graphics Diné (Navajo) Weaving Design

Type from Bitmap: Bitmap & pixel
Monospace
Colour from Diné Weaving Design: Earth & mineral
Flat fields
Form from Diné Weaving Design: Angular & zigzag
Non-representational
Composition from Bitmap: Modular grid
Isolated object

Diné Weaving Design avoids modular grid: this is where the two pull against each other.
Surface from Bitmap: Grain & noise
Flat

The type

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

Display · Bitmap

Circuit

Pixelify Sans, standing in for Chicago (Susan Kare, 1984)

Text · Diné Weaving Design

The tapestry-woven design tradition of Diné (Navajo) weavers, recorded in Spanish sources from the early 18th century. Each design is planned as one symmetrical field and built weft by weft, so every diagonal steps. Striped blankets came first, some with terraced diamonds by 1804. After Bosque Redondo came eyedazzlers, Saltillo-derived serrated diamonds in bright Germantown yarn. Then came bordered trading-post rugs, some modelled on Oriental rugs, in regional codes such as Two Grey Hills and Ganado red. Contemporary tapestry artists such as DY Begay extend it into landscape and abstraction.

Oswald; Diné Weaving Design used Stepped capitals built on the weft grid when a title has to share the woven field, such as Silkscreen or another pixel face drawn on the same square grid and Diné bizaad text with full orthographic support (ą, ł, ʼ, nasal and high-tone marks such as ą́), set in a sturdy sans such as Noto Sans

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Diné Weaving Design, with a counter-accent from Bitmap. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Bitmap & Pixel Graphics Diné (Navajo) Weaving Design

#ede6d6 ground · 36%
#1c1814 ink · 14%
#d8682a accent · 18%
#9bbc0f accent · 14%
#a3201c accent · 10%
#ff55ff accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ede6d6;
  --ink: #1c1814;
  --accent-1: #d8682a;
  --accent-2: #9bbc0f;
  --accent-3: #a3201c;
  --accent-4: #ff55ff;
  --font-display: "Pixelify Sans", monospace;
  --font-text: "Oswald", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Diné (Navajo) Weaving Design: Diné weaving is a living craft, taught within families and tied to the Diné account of Spider Woman, who taught the first weavers to build the loom. It has also been suggested that the Diné learned weaving from Pueblo neighbours, though how far is uncertain; give the Diné account first. Yeibichai and sandpainting designs depict Holy People from healing ceremonies, and weaving them was controversial within the Navajo community even when Hastiin Klah, himself a ceremonial singer, did it. Do not reproduce Yei or sandpainting imagery. Diné weavers may leave a spirit line (Ch'ihónít'i), a deliberate break through a border that gives spiritual elements a way out of the textile; it is their practice, so do not add a spirit line or any 'meaning' to a design as decoration. Do not sell printed or machine-made 'Navajo pattern' as Indian-made: the US Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 prohibits that. The Navajo Nation also holds trademarks in the name 'Navajo', registered since 1943. It sued Urban Outfitters in 2012 over 'Navajo' and 'Navaho' product lines, and the case was settled in 2016 with a supply and licence agreement. Do not label non-Diné products or patterns 'Navajo'; the Nation expects companies to ask its permission before using its name, designs or motifs. Commission, pay and credit Diné weavers by name rather than copying their rugs, for example through the Crownpoint Rug Auction, run since 1968, with breaks, by a community organisation of weavers and volunteers.

The two styles

A retro pixel-art space navigation interface shows a gridded star map with a spiral galaxy, colorful stars, and green celestial bodies. A right-hand panel displays a cyan planet and its statistics, while object cards and a command menu run along the bottom.

1977–1995 · North America, East Asia Bitmap & Pixel Graphics Graphics and lettering built from the square pixels of low-resolution screens (arcade and console sprites, home-computer displays and the first graphical user interfaces), where every dot was placed by hand within tight limits of memory, resolution and palette. Designers such as Susan Kare turned those constraints into a language of legible pictogram icons, jagged bitmap fonts and dithered tones.

A rug-like geometric poster features symmetrical stepped diamonds, zigzags and cross motifs in rust red, orange, navy, cream, gray and black. The word “BALANCE” sits inside a large cream diamond at the center, surrounded by patterned borders.

1700–present · North America Diné (Navajo) Weaving Design The tapestry-woven design tradition of Diné (Navajo) weavers, recorded in Spanish sources from the early 18th century. Each design is planned as one symmetrical field and built weft by weft, so every diagonal steps. Striped blankets came first, some with terraced diamonds by 1804. After Bosque Redondo came eyedazzlers, Saltillo-derived serrated diamonds in bright Germantown yarn. Then came bordered trading-post rugs, some modelled on Oriental rugs, in regional codes such as Two Grey Hills and Ganado red. Contemporary tapestry artists such as DY Begay extend it into landscape and abstraction.