Corporate Memphis × Polish Poster School

Polish poster metaphor and painterly ambiguity show how much illustration can say once it stops being generic.

From the research on Corporate Memphis

Mix them and make something Corporate Memphis Polish Poster School

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Corporate Memphis, their arrangement from Polish Poster School, the finish from Polish Poster School. 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.

Corporate Memphis Polish Poster School

Type from Polish Poster School: Hand-lettering
Colour from Corporate Memphis: Flat fields
Full polychrome
Form from Corporate Memphis: Distortion & exaggeration
Stylised figuration
Composition from Polish Poster School: Single focal point
Isolated object
Surface from Polish Poster School: Painterly brushwork

The type

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

Display · Polish Poster School

Pop

Londrina Solid; Polish Poster School used Henryk Tomaszewski's casual handwritten capitals and Brush- and crayon-drawn title lettering

Text · Corporate Memphis

The flat vector illustration style that became the default visual voice of big tech in the late 2010s: faceless, ethnically non-specific figures with elongated limbs and tiny heads, drawn in bright flat colour among blobs, leaves and confetti. Codified in Buck's Alegria system for Facebook (2017) and spread by open libraries such as unDraw and Humaaans, it was later named, half-mockingly, after the Memphis Group.

Hanken Grotesk; Corporate Memphis used Circular and Airbnb Cereal

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Corporate Memphis, with a counter-accent from Polish Poster School. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Corporate Memphis Polish Poster School

#ffffff ground · 36%
#2f2e41 ink · 14%
#ffc857 accent · 18%
#d4352b accent · 14%
#6c63ff accent · 10%
#d6a23a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ffffff;
  --ink: #2f2e41;
  --accent-1: #ffc857;
  --accent-2: #d4352b;
  --accent-3: #6c63ff;
  --accent-4: #d6a23a;
  --font-display: "Londrina Solid", cursive;
  --font-text: "Hanken Grotesk", sans-serif;
}

The two styles

A brightly coloured illustration shows a person with a dark ponytail striding with one knee raised and arms spread, wearing a yellow shirt, purple trousers and teal shoes. The words “Move Brighter” appear above them on a white background scattered with colourful dots and curved marks.

2017–present · North America, Global / networked Corporate Memphis The flat vector illustration style that became the default visual voice of big tech in the late 2010s: faceless, ethnically non-specific figures with elongated limbs and tiny heads, drawn in bright flat colour among blobs, leaves and confetti. Codified in Buck's Alegria system for Facebook (2017) and spread by open libraries such as unDraw and Humaaans, it was later named, half-mockingly, after the Memphis Group.

A large, elongated dark face has an open-topped head containing a hilltop town with blue, cream and ochre buildings, slender trees and a pale sun against a red sky. Rough brush lettering reading “Inner City” fills the cream space at the lower left.

1950–1990 · Eastern Europe Polish Poster School A painterly, metaphorical poster culture that flourished in communist Poland, chiefly for film, theatre, opera and circus. Working for state publishers, free of commercial pressure but under censorship, designers such as Henryk Tomaszewski, Jan Lenica and Roman Cieślewicz replaced star photographs with a single witty or unsettling visual idea, painted or collaged by hand and lettered in the artist's own handwriting.

More combinations

With Corporate Memphis

All 28 combinations with Corporate Memphis

With Polish Poster School

All 22 combinations with Polish Poster School

Every style combination