Style combination · Contrasts
Corporate Memphis × Isotype Pictorial Statistics
Corporate Memphis uses flat figures for mood; Isotype's figures always count something, so use people icons only when they carry data.
Mix them and make something Corporate Memphis Isotype Pictorial Statistics
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.
Corporate Memphis Isotype Pictorial Statistics
- Type from Corporate Memphis
- Colour from Corporate Memphis
- Form from Corporate Memphis
- Composition from Isotype Pictorial Statistics
- Surface from Isotype Pictorial Statistics
02
The type
Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.
Text · Isotype Pictorial Statistics
A method of visual education developed by Otto Neurath, Marie Neurath (Reidemeister) and Gerd Arntz in Red Vienna from 1925, which turns statistics into rows of identical pictograms where a greater quantity is shown by more signs, never by bigger ones. Continued in The Hague and Oxford until 1971, its standardised symbols, flat colours and sans-serif captions laid the foundations of modern information graphics and pictogram systems.
Jost; Isotype Pictorial Statistics used Futura and Gerd Arntz's linocut pictogram set (c. 4,000 signs), used like a fount of picture-type
03
The colours
The ground and leading colours come from Corporate Memphis, with a counter-accent from Isotype Pictorial Statistics. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.
Corporate Memphis Isotype Pictorial Statistics
-
#ffffffground · 36% -
#2f2e41ink · 14% -
#ffc857accent · 18% -
#c8372daccent · 14% -
#6c63ffaccent · 10% -
#2c5aa0accent · 8%
As CSS
:root {
--ground: #ffffff;
--ink: #2f2e41;
--accent-1: #ffc857;
--accent-2: #c8372d;
--accent-3: #6c63ff;
--accent-4: #2c5aa0;
--font-display: "Hanken Grotesk", sans-serif;
--font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}04
The two styles
05
More combinations
With Corporate Memphis
- Polish Poster School Contrasts · Polish poster metaphor and painterly ambiguity show how much illustration can say once it stops being generic.
- Risograph & Indie Print Culture Pairs well · Add riso grain and two spot inks to the figures to escape the over-familiar SaaS sheen and give them printed warmth.
- DTC 'Blanding' / Millennial Minimalism Pairs well · Its photo-led start-up sibling: pair Corporate Memphis figures with blanding's pastel ground and geometric sans when a brand needs both people and product.
- Brutalist Web Design Contrasts · Brutalism's raw honesty is the opposite of this friendly gloss; reach for it when a brand needs credibility over cheer.
- Memphis Design Contrasts · The original's real colour clash, irony and Sottsass or Du Pasquier patterns are the foil to generic confetti blobs; borrow one genuine Memphis pattern to give the illustration an edge.
- Rubber-Hose Revival (Cartoon Mascot Graphics) Contrasts · Both draw stretched figures in flat colour, but the revival gives each brand its own outlined, nostalgic mascot where Corporate Memphis uses interchangeable faceless people.
- CalArts Style (Rounded Cartoon Character Design) Pairs well · Both use flat fills and simplified figures; borrow its pastel UI-illustration palette, but keep faces and expressions, which Corporate Memphis drops.
- Data Humanism Contrasts · Both aim to feel warm and human, but Corporate Memphis draws generic faceless figures for mood, while data humanism draws the specific data of specific people. Replace stock warmth with a drawing of real data when a brand needs sincerity.
With Isotype Pictorial Statistics
- International Typographic Style Pairs well · Set Isotype rows of pictograms on a Swiss grid for public information that is rigorous yet friendly.
- Socialist Realist Propaganda Poster Contrasts · Socialist Realism dramatises with heroic figures while Isotype persuades by counting; choose evidence over emotion when trust matters.
- Flat Design Pairs well · Flat icon sets are Isotype's heirs; apply its one-symbol-one-meaning rule to keep an icon family consistent.
- Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic & Register Composition Pairs well · Otto Neurath called his visual autobiography From hieroglyphics to Isotype, with chapters on hieroglyphics through the centuries and their renaissance; borrow the rule-bound sign family and rows of standing figures, but note the opposite rule of size: Isotype shows more by adding signs of equal size, Egypt shows rank by making one figure bigger.
- Data Humanism Contrasts · Isotype fixes one standard sign per thing and counts by repeating it so anyone can read the chart; data humanism invents a new code for each dataset and asks for slow reading. Choose Isotype for public information, data humanism for portraits of particular lives.
- Schematic Transit Diagram (Beck Tube Map Idiom) Pairs well · Add pictorial statistics beside the diagram to carry quantities as well as connections.
- Warli Painting Contrasts · Both build people from a few reduced shapes and repeat them in rows; Isotype's figures count data in flat colours on a light ground, Warli's narrate ritual and village life in white on earth, so borrow the repetition but not the meaning.
- Nutri-Score (Front-of-Pack Colour-Grade Label) Pairs well · Both turn data into a sign anyone can read at a glance; borrow Isotype's repeated pictograms to explain the five grades on shelf talkers, leaflets or school material.