Style combination · Pairs well

Indian Calendar × Nianhua

Both are devotional bazaar prints; share frontal deities, saturated colour and decorative frames across a festive campaign.

From the research on Nianhua & Chinese Folk Print

Both are festive devotional bazaar prints; share frontal figures, rich borders and auspicious symbols across a festival campaign.

From the research on Indian Calendar & Bazaar Art

Mix them and make something Indian Calendar Nianhua

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Nianhua, their arrangement from Indian Calendar, the finish from Nianhua. 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.

Indian Calendar & Bazaar Art Nianhua & Chinese Folk Print

Type from Indian Calendar: Hand-lettering
Colour from Indian Calendar: Full polychrome
Jewel & metallic
Form from Nianhua: Stylised figuration
Folk & sacred symbols
Composition from Indian Calendar: Central symmetry
Single focal point
Surface from Nianhua: Carved line
Flat

Indian Calendar avoids flat: this is where the two pull against each other.

The type

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

Display · Indian Calendar

Halo

Rozha One, standing in for Hand-drawn Devanagari display lettering

Text · Nianhua

Woodblock pictures bought each New Year and pasted on doors, walls and kitchen shrines to invite luck and ward off harm: paired door gods, plump babies with carp, the Kitchen God, opera scenes and auspicious rebuses. A black keyline block is overprinted or hand-coloured in saturated red, green, yellow and pink, and compositions are dense, frontal and often mirrored in pairs.

Shippori Mincho; Nianhua used Kaishu and Lishu (clerical script) for auspicious couplets

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Indian Calendar, with a counter-accent from Nianhua. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Indian Calendar & Bazaar Art Nianhua & Chinese Folk Print

#d4a537 ground · 36%
#141414 ink · 14%
#c8202f accent · 18%
#1e6fa3 accent · 14%
#e5739a accent · 10%
#2e6b3c accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #d4a537;
  --ink: #141414;
  --accent-1: #c8202f;
  --accent-2: #1e6fa3;
  --accent-3: #e5739a;
  --accent-4: #2e6b3c;
  --font-display: "Rozha One", serif;
  --font-text: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
}

Use it with care

Indian Calendar & Bazaar Art: These are devotional images that many viewers worship, so do not crop, distort or deface deities or place them on footwear, floors, underwear or in mocking contexts. Many original painters went uncredited; name the artist and press where known.

The two styles

1878–present · South Asia Indian Calendar & Bazaar Art Mass-printed images of Hindu deities, epic scenes, saints, nationalist heroes and film stars, sold in bazaars and given away as business calendars, from the chromolithographs of the Calcutta Art Studio and Ravi Varma Press to Sivakasi offset. Frontal, idealised figures painted with academic naturalism glow against dreamy landscapes, in saturated colour with gold, haloes and ornate frames above the sponsor's name and calendar pad.

A densely decorated, symmetrical Chinese folk-style print shows two children holding coins above paired carp and guardian lions, surrounded by pink flowers, green foliage, red lanterns and long-necked birds. A yellow panel with black Chinese lettering sits beneath a rising sun at the top.

c. 1100–present · East Asia Nianhua & Chinese Folk Print Woodblock pictures bought each New Year and pasted on doors, walls and kitchen shrines to invite luck and ward off harm: paired door gods, plump babies with carp, the Kitchen God, opera scenes and auspicious rebuses. A black keyline block is overprinted or hand-coloured in saturated red, green, yellow and pink, and compositions are dense, frontal and often mirrored in pairs.

More combinations

With Indian Calendar

All 14 combinations with Indian Calendar

With Nianhua

All 15 combinations with Nianhua

Every style combination