Style combination · Contrasts
Brodovitch Editorial Design × Die Neue Typographie
Asymmetry without rules: improvised and photographic rather than systematic.
Mix them and make something Brodovitch Editorial Design Die Neue Typographie
01
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.
Brodovitch Editorial Design (Harper's Bazaar) Die Neue Typographie
- Type from Die Neue Typographie
- Colour from Die Neue Typographie
- Form from Die Neue Typographie
- Composition from Brodovitch Editorial Design
- Surface from Brodovitch Editorial Design
02
The type
Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.
Text · Brodovitch Editorial Design
A magazine-spread idiom in which the photograph is treated as a cinematic sequence: bled, unexpectedly cropped, grainy and blurred images set against generous white space, a Didone masthead and an expressive second colour that varied by issue. Improvised rather than gridded, it made the fashion magazine an art-directed object and shaped a generation of photographers.
Bodoni Moda; Brodovitch Editorial Design used Didot and Al-Bro
03
The colours
The ground and leading colours come from Die Neue Typographie, with a counter-accent from Brodovitch Editorial Design. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.
Brodovitch Editorial Design (Harper's Bazaar) Die Neue Typographie
-
#f3efe4ground · 39% -
#141414ink · 15% -
#d32a1faccent · 20% -
#7d7a73accent · 15% -
#e8b4b8accent · 11%
As CSS
:root {
--ground: #f3efe4;
--ink: #141414;
--accent-1: #d32a1f;
--accent-2: #7d7a73;
--accent-3: #e8b4b8;
--font-display: "Jost", sans-serif;
--font-text: "Bodoni Moda", serif;
}04
The two styles
05
More combinations
With Brodovitch Editorial Design
With Die Neue Typographie
- Risograph & Indie Print Culture Pairs well · Two-colour riso printing suits its black-plus-red restraint for low-budget editorial and posters.
- Cranbrook & Deconstructivist Typography Contrasts · Cranbrook dismantled exactly these rules; state one New Typography convention clearly, then break it on purpose.
- International Typographic Style Pairs well · Extend its asymmetric black-and-red onto a full modular grid for a seamless Swiss-era update.
- Renaissance Book Typography Contrasts · Tschichold himself returned to the centred classical page; set the two side by side to choose between symmetric tradition and asymmetric function.
- Mechano-Faktura & Polish Constructivist Advertising Pairs well · Pair the line-field image with asymmetric sans setting for an advertising layout.
- Post-Punk Record Sleeve (Stiff, Factory, 4AD) Pairs well · Saville's model: borrow Tschichold's asymmetric placement and small sans-serif capitals, then replace his photographs with one quoted image to get a cool, ordered sleeve.
- German Book Art Movement (Buchkunstbewegung) Contrasts · From the mid-1920s the Bauhaus and the New Typography took over the avant-garde of the book; centred hand-press pages against asymmetric sans-serif layouts make a clear old-against-new tension.
- ECM Sleeve Aesthetic (Munich) Pairs well · Barbara Wojirsch named Tschichold as an influence: borrow his asymmetric blocks of small sans-serif type and set them beside one quiet photograph instead of his photomontage.