Style combination · Pairs well

Indian Calendar × Thai Hand-Painted Film Poster and Billboard

A parallel in saturated naturalistic painting of idealised figures, not a documented influence; adds devotional frontality to the romantic mood.

From the research on Thai Hand-Painted Film Poster and Billboard

Mix them and make something Indian Calendar Thai Hand-Painted Film Poster and Billboard

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Indian Calendar, their arrangement from Indian Calendar, the finish from Thai Hand-Painted Film Poster and Billboard. 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 Thai Hand-Painted Film Poster and Billboard

Type from Thai Hand-Painted Film Poster and Billboard: Hand-lettering
Type as image
Colour from Indian Calendar: Full polychrome
Jewel & metallic
Form from Indian Calendar: Naturalistic depiction
Abundant decoration
Composition from Indian Calendar: Central symmetry
Single focal point
Surface from Thai Hand-Painted Film Poster and Billboard: Painterly brushwork

The type

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

Display · Thai Hand-Painted Film Poster and Billboard

Rose

Yatra One; Thai Hand-Painted Film Poster and Billboard used Hand-painted Thai display lettering and Painted Latin title lettering

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 Indian Calendar, with a counter-accent from Thai Hand-Painted Film Poster and Billboard. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Indian Calendar & Bazaar Art Thai Hand-Painted Film Poster and Billboard

#d4a537 ground · 36%
#141414 ink · 14%
#c8202f accent · 18%
#1e6fa3 accent · 14%
#2e6b3c accent · 10%
#2a9d6f accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #d4a537;
  --ink: #141414;
  --accent-1: #c8202f;
  --accent-2: #1e6fa3;
  --accent-3: #2e6b3c;
  --accent-4: #2a9d6f;
  --font-display: "Yatra One", cursive;
  --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 densely painted adventure-horror poster centres on a sword-wielding man and a woman in red, with a huge blue-green supernatural face looming behind them. Surrounding scenes show Thai temples, a Buddha statue, armed men, a monk, boats in rushing water, skulls, waterfalls and charging elephants, with large red-and-yellow Thai lettering across the lower middle.

1953–present · Southeast Asia Thai Hand-Painted Film Poster and Billboard Cinema advertising painted by hand at the largest possible size on billboards and on touring pick-up trucks, copied from lobby cards and posters and enlarged with the grid method. Painters fuse a film's selling scenes (faces, romance, action, menace) into one crowded, saturated, collage-like montage in brush and bold colour, giving imported films raw emotion and dramatic impact. The tradition continues in southern Thailand.