Style combination · Contrasts

Brazilian Modernismo Graphics × International Typographic Style

Neutral grid and one sans against a jobbing case of mixed faces, broken words and mock adverts: set a Klaxon cover beside a Swiss poster to show order against irony.

From the research on Brazilian Modernismo Graphics (Klaxon and the Semana de 22)

Mix them and make something Brazilian Modernismo Graphics International Typographic Style

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Brazilian Modernismo Graphics, their arrangement from International Typographic Style, the finish from Brazilian Modernismo Graphics. 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.

Brazilian Modernismo Graphics (Klaxon and the Semana de 22) International Typographic Style

Type from Brazilian Modernismo Graphics: Type as image
Eclectic mixing

International Typographic Style avoids eclectic mixing: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
Colour from International Typographic Style: Limited spot colours
Flat fields
Form from Brazilian Modernismo Graphics: Stylised figuration
Distortion & exaggeration
Composition from International Typographic Style: Modular grid
Dynamic asymmetry
Surface from Brazilian Modernismo Graphics: Paper & letterpress bite
Flat

The type

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

Display · Brazilian Modernismo Graphics

Grid

Anton, standing in for Heavy jobbing grotesque capitals (KLAXON across every Klaxon cover, 1922-23; condensed grotesques for the mock 'Aviso á Praça' and price list)

Text · International Typographic Style

A post-war refinement of the New Typography in which the mathematical grid, objective photography and neo-grotesque sans-serifs were used to communicate with clarity and neutrality. Taught at the Basel and Zurich schools, it became the default language of international corporate and institutional communication.

Inter; International Typographic Style used Akzidenz-Grotesk and Helvetica

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from International Typographic Style, with a counter-accent from Brazilian Modernismo Graphics. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Brazilian Modernismo Graphics (Klaxon and the Semana de 22) International Typographic Style

#f2f0e9 ground · 36%
#111111 ink · 14%
#e1251b accent · 18%
#d8b628 accent · 14%
#1f4e9c accent · 10%
#7a7a7a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f2f0e9;
  --ink: #111111;
  --accent-1: #e1251b;
  --accent-2: #d8b628;
  --accent-3: #1f4e9c;
  --accent-4: #7a7a7a;
  --font-display: "Anton", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Inter", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Brazilian Modernismo Graphics (Klaxon and the Semana de 22): Antropofagia's cannibal metaphor and its Tupi words ('Tupy, or not tupy') were a São Paulo elite's figure of speech about Indigenous peoples, not their own voice: borrow the method of swallowing and recombining foreign models, not Tupi people or ritual as decoration. Much of this work is still in copyright in Brazil (life plus 70 years): Guilherme de Almeida (died 1969), Anita Malfatti (1964), Tarsila do Amaral (1973), Di Cavalcanti (1976), John Graz (1980), Paim (1988) and Yan de Almeida Prado (1991); Brecheret (1955) entered the Brazilian public domain on 1 January 2026. A straight green-and-yellow flag pastiche now reads in Brazil as a partisan emblem, so quote Pau Brasil's gesture of rewriting the flag rather than the flag itself.

The two styles

1922–1929 · Latin America & Caribbean Brazilian Modernismo Graphics (Klaxon and the Semana de 22) The print side of São Paulo's Modernismo (1922-29), set in jobbing print shops. Klaxon (1922-23) kept one cover for all its issues: a heavy grotesque title and fat lowercase words locked around a giant condensed A in a second ink, a thick black bar and the number turned on its side, with only the card and ink changing. Its back covers made sponsors' adverts into word games and mocked the sonnet trade. Books brought title pages set as justified letter blocks, Tarsila do Amaral's flag cover for Pau Brasil, and contour drawings like her Abaporu sketch for the Manifesto Antropófago (1928).

The words “Urban Systems” appear in large black and red lettering at the upper left of an off-white cover. Tall blue, black and grey rectangular blocks rise from the bottom, with fine vertical dividing lines and a red circle at the upper right.

1950–1975 · Central Europe International Typographic Style A post-war refinement of the New Typography in which the mathematical grid, objective photography and neo-grotesque sans-serifs were used to communicate with clarity and neutrality. Taught at the Basel and Zurich schools, it became the default language of international corporate and institutional communication.