Style combination · Pairs well
Russian Constructivism × Estridentismo Graphics
Two post-revolutionary avant-gardes: borrow Constructivism's thick bars and heavy grotesque to steady a Stridentist cover, but keep the hand-cut woodcut instead of photomontage.
Mix them and make something Russian Constructivism Estridentismo Graphics
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.
Russian Constructivism Estridentismo (Stridentist) Graphics
- Type from Estridentismo Graphics
- Colour from Russian Constructivism
- Form from Russian Constructivism
- Composition from Russian Constructivism
- Surface from Estridentismo Graphics
02
The type
Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.
Display · Estridentismo Graphics
Orbit
Anton, standing in for Heavy condensed block capitals (Irradiador masthead and cover texts between thick black rules, with giant block-built issue numerals, 1923)
Text · Russian Constructivism
Constructivism rejected art for art's sake in favour of the artist-engineer building useful things for the new Soviet society. In posters, books, film publicity and state advertising it fused bold grotesque type, heavy bars, photomontage and diagonal axes into an urgent, utilitarian language of agitation that shaped modern graphic design worldwide.
Archivo; Russian Constructivism used Soviet heavy grotesques and Rodchenko's constructed block lettering
03
The colours
The ground and leading colours come from Russian Constructivism, with a counter-accent from Estridentismo Graphics. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.
Russian Constructivism Estridentismo (Stridentist) Graphics
-
#efe6d2ground · 36% -
#141414ink · 14% -
#d1261caccent · 18% -
#e0552baccent · 14% -
#c9b28aaccent · 10% -
#6b6b66accent · 8%
As CSS
:root {
--ground: #efe6d2;
--ink: #141414;
--accent-1: #d1261c;
--accent-2: #e0552b;
--accent-3: #c9b28a;
--accent-4: #6b6b66;
--font-display: "Anton", sans-serif;
--font-text: "Archivo", sans-serif;
}04
The two styles
05
More combinations
With Russian Constructivism
- Punk & DIY Zine Pairs well · Punk borrowed Constructivist red-and-black agitprop; combine photomontage with xerox grit for protest graphics.
- International Typographic Style Pairs well · Tame Constructivist diagonals with a Swiss grid for informational work that still feels urgent.
- Art Deco Contrasts · Deco used similar geometry to sell luxury; set the two side by side to decide whether a layout should glamorise or agitate.
- Belle Époque Lithographic Poster Contrasts · Sensual drawn figures versus photomontaged workers: use the contrast to choose between seduction and mobilisation.
- ROSTA Windows Contrasts · In the same revolutionary years the ROSTA windows used stencilled cartoon frames and rhymed captions instead of photomontage and set grotesques; compare them to choose between folk legibility and machine-age form.
- Suprematism Pairs well · Add photomontage and heavy grotesque slogans to Suprematist floating planes to turn pure form into a message.
- British Style Press (The Face, i-D and Arena) Pairs well · Brody's source: take Rodchenko's diagonals, heavy bars and huge constructed letters, swap agitprop for fashion and club culture, and you get a Face spread.
- Mavo Pairs well · Borrow Constructivism's heavy bars and one red ink to steady a Mavo page, but keep Mavo's hand-drawn characters and abstract machine linocuts instead of a single clear slogan.
With Estridentismo Graphics
- Art Deco Pairs well · Both drew the 1920s skyline; pair Deco's setback towers and block display letters with Stridentist black-and-white relief for a skyscraper poster with a rougher, revolutionary edge.
- Mexican Popular Graphics (Posada) Contrasts · Same Mexico City walls a generation apart: Posada's broadsheets of skeletons, crimes and saints against Maples Arce's broadside of radio, speed and skyscrapers; set one beside the other to stage folk memory against the machine future.
- Taller de Gráfica Popular Pairs well · Leopoldo Méndez carried the Stridentist woodcut into the Taller de Gráfica Popular in 1937; give a TGP print a radio mast or a skyline on a steep diagonal and one bright ink to bring back the machine-age optimism.
- Arts & Crafts Movement Contrasts · Both cut wood by hand, for opposite ends: Arts and Crafts used the block to flee the machine, Stridentism used it to celebrate radio masts and factories.
- Brazilian Modernismo Graphics (Klaxon and the Semana de 22) Pairs well · Two Latin American avant-gardes launched within two months of each other (Actual No. 1 in December 1921, the Semana in February 1922). Pair Klaxon's shared-letter letterpress cover with a Stridentist woodcut skyline for a 1920s magazine that is both witty and machine-mad.