Indian Calendar × Pop Art Graphics

Treat a calendar print as found imagery, repeated and flattened Pop-style, while respecting devotional subjects.

From the research on Indian Calendar & Bazaar Art

Mix them and make something Indian Calendar Pop Art Graphics

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

Indian Calendar & Bazaar Art Pop Art Graphics

Type from Pop Art Graphics: Hand-lettering
Type as image
Colour from Pop Art Graphics: Primary triad
Flat fields
Form from Indian Calendar: Naturalistic depiction
Abundant decoration
Composition from Indian Calendar: Central symmetry
Single focal point
Surface from Pop Art Graphics: Halftone & Ben-Day dots
Hard offset shadow

The type

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

Display · Pop Art Graphics

Together

Bangers; Pop Art Graphics used Comic-book hand lettering and Franklin Gothic

Text · Indian Calendar

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.

Archivo; Indian Calendar used Hand-drawn Devanagari display lettering and Hand-lettered Tamil and Bengali titles

The colours

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

Indian Calendar & Bazaar Art Pop Art Graphics

#fbf8f0 ground · 36%
#111111 ink · 14%
#ffd400 accent · 18%
#e8822a accent · 14%
#e10600 accent · 10%
#c8202f accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #fbf8f0;
  --ink: #111111;
  --accent-1: #ffd400;
  --accent-2: #e8822a;
  --accent-3: #e10600;
  --accent-4: #c8202f;
  --font-display: "Bangers", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Archivo", sans-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 retro comic-style woman with curled dark hair, a pink headscarf and red nails holds an open bottle of dark fizzy drink. Large yellow “ZING!” lettering fills the top above bright starbursts, bubbles and red, yellow and blue halftone textures.

1955–1975 · North America, Western Europe Pop Art Graphics Pop turned the commercial imagery of post-war consumer culture (comics, packaging, celebrity photographs and advertising) into both its subject and its method. Images are appropriated, enlarged, flattened and repeated; colour is bright and unmodulated; and the printing process itself, from Ben-Day dots to off-register silkscreen, is left visible as a sign of mass production.

More combinations

With Indian Calendar

All 14 combinations with Indian Calendar

With Pop Art Graphics

All 33 combinations with Pop Art Graphics

Every style combination