Stylogeny combining Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book × Egyptian Painted Film Poster

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Style combination · Pairs well

Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book × Egyptian Painted Film Poster

Combine the cinema poster's glamorous painted title with the book designers' rough line and folk borders for a Cairo identity that spans screen and print.

From the research on Egyptian Painted Film Poster

Mix them and make something Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book Egyptian Painted Film Poster

WowWowCairo–Beirut Arab × Egyptian Painted
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book, their arrangement from Egyptian Painted Film Poster, the finish from Egyptian Painted Film Poster. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

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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.

Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book & Periodical Design Egyptian Painted Film Poster

Type from Egyptian Painted Film Poster
Colour from Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book
Form from Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book
Composition from Egyptian Painted Film Poster
Surface from Egyptian Painted Film Poster

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The type

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

Display · Egyptian Painted Film Poster

Wow

Rakkas, standing in for Hand-painted Arabic calligraphic title logotypes

Text · Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book

The illustrated book, magazine and children's-book culture that ran from Cairo's post-1952 publishing houses to the Arab nationalist and leftist presses of Beirut. Hand-drawn Arabic titles reworked from Kufic and everyday scripts, rough, expressive pen-and-brush drawing and flat offset colour gave mass readers and children a modern, decolonised Arabic page. Helmi el-Touni and Mohieddin Ellabbad also brought folk ornament and borders back to it.

Reem Kufi; Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book used Hand-drawn Kufic-derived Arabic display lettering and Hand-lettered titles based on Ruqʿa and Naskh

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The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book, with a counter-accent from Egyptian Painted Film Poster. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book & Periodical Design Egyptian Painted Film Poster

  • #f0e6cf ground · 36%
  • #1c1a17 ink · 14%
  • #e1a930 accent · 18%
  • #c4362c accent · 14%
  • #2a8a8a accent · 10%
  • #6b7a3a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f0e6cf;
  --ink: #1c1a17;
  --accent-1: #e1a930;
  --accent-2: #c4362c;
  --accent-3: #2a8a8a;
  --accent-4: #6b7a3a;
  --font-display: "Rakkas", cursive;
  --font-text: "Reem Kufi", cursive;
}

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The two styles

A vintage-style illustration shows a woman in a patterned headscarf and red embroidered dress holding a large key, with olive branches in the foreground. Behind her are sailboats, a waterfront town with a dome and minaret, birds, and a large golden sun; red Arabic lettering spans the top. 1952–1990 · Middle East & North Africa Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book & Periodical Design The illustrated book, magazine and children's-book culture that ran from Cairo's post-1952 publishing houses to the Arab nationalist and leftist presses of Beirut. Hand-drawn Arabic titles reworked from Kufic and everyday scripts, rough, expressive pen-and-brush drawing and flat offset colour gave mass readers and children a modern, decolonised Arabic page. Helmi el-Touni and Mohieddin Ellabbad also brought folk ornament and borders back to it. A vintage-style painted poster combines large portraits of a dark-haired woman and a mustached man in a white turban with Egyptian ruins, torch-bearing men, and sailboats on a river at sunset. Red Arabic lettering spans the top, while a woman in a flowing red dress crouches beside a carved stone wall below. 1932–1996 · Middle East & North Africa Egyptian Painted Film Poster The painted publicity of Egyptian cinema from the early talkies to the 1990s, designed outside the studios by artist-printers such as Hassan Mazhar Gassour and printed as colour lithographs in Cairo. Star portraits copied from stills float as cut-out heads above a melodramatic scene. The Arabic title is painted as a one-off calligraphic logotype whose swelling, interlocked strokes can act out the film's theme.

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