Style combination · Contrasts
Russian Constructivism × Russian Futurist Book
Constructivism replaced this handwritten, primitivist page with grotesque type, rules and photomontage; set the two side by side to stage hand against machine.
Mix them and make something Russian Constructivism Russian Futurist Book
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 Russian Futurist Book
- Type from Russian Futurist Book
- Colour from Russian Constructivism
- Form from Russian Constructivism
- Composition from Russian Constructivism
- Surface from Russian Futurist Book
02
The type
Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.
Display · Russian Futurist Book
No!
Caveat, standing in for The poets' own handwriting transferred to the lithographic stone (Rozanova and Kruchenykh's samopismo, 'self-writing')
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 Russian Futurist Book. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.
Russian Constructivism Russian Futurist Book
-
#efe6d2ground · 36% -
#141414ink · 14% -
#d1261caccent · 18% -
#d6b44aaccent · 14% -
#c9b28aaccent · 10% -
#b5463aaccent · 8%
As CSS
:root {
--ground: #efe6d2;
--ink: #141414;
--accent-1: #d1261c;
--accent-2: #d6b44a;
--accent-3: #c9b28a;
--accent-4: #b5463a;
--font-display: "Caveat", cursive;
--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 Russian Futurist Book
- Risograph & Indie Print Culture Pairs well · Small-run riso artist's books on tinted stock, with handwritten text and a collaged cover, recreate the Futurist pamphlet's economy today.
- Suprematism Contrasts · Malevich went from drawing crude figures in these books to pure geometry on white; pick Suprematism for cosmic order and the Futurist book for crowded, earthy handwork.
- Punk & DIY Zine Pairs well · Both turn cheap reproduction into an anti-professional stance; swap the photocopier for hand lithography or riso to get a punk zine with an archaic, painterly voice.
- Lubok Popular Print Pairs well · The Futurists borrowed the lubok's crude contour and hand-cut lettering; pair them for folk-voiced print whose letters and figures are drawn by the same hand.
- Leningrad Avant-Garde Picture Book Contrasts · The Futurist book crowds handwriting and crude drawing onto rough paper; the Leningrad picture book clears the page and lets a few flat planes float on it; choose between a dense handmade page and an airy, ordered one.
- Kultur-Lige & Yiddish Avant-Garde Book Design Contrasts · Its parent in method: artists drawing the whole page and printing it by lithography in small runs. The Futurist book is Cyrillic, mostly black and deliberately crude; the Kultur-Lige book is in Yiddish, earnest, and at its most ambitious in colour, and builds its pages from the Hebrew letter and synagogue ornament.
- Zenitism (Zenit Magazine Typography) Pairs well · Both treat the printed page as a manifesto in rough mixed type; combine them for a polemical artist's book.
- Mir iskusstva Book Art Contrasts · Both drew on the lubok, but the Futurists kept its crude cut, rough paper and handwriting while the World of Art refined it into a polished, bordered ensemble; choose between raw and ennobled folk sources.