Style combination · Pairs well

Corporate Identity Modernism × Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons

The seal is built like a corporate mark, from a unit grid, one typeface, one colour and a size table; borrow the standards-manual discipline when a public-health sign must stay identical across thousands of packs.

From the research on Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons (Latin American Food Warning Seals)

Mix them and make something Corporate Identity Modernism Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons, their arrangement from Corporate Identity Modernism, the finish from Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons. 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 Identity Modernism Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons (Latin American Food Warning Seals)

Type from Corporate Identity Modernism: Grotesque & neo-grotesque
Geometric sans
Colour from Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons: Monochrome
Flat fields
Form from Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons: Geometric primitives
Emblems & badges
Composition from Corporate Identity Modernism: Isolated object
Single focal point
Surface from Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons: Flat

The type

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

Display · Corporate Identity Modernism

Civic

Inter Tight, standing in for Helvetica

Text · Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons

A state warning system stacked on commercial food packs. Under Chile's Law 20.606 and Decree 13 (in force 27 June 2016), every packaged food with added sugars, sodium or saturated fat that exceeds the limits for those nutrients or for calories carries one black octagon per nutrient: a stop-sign shape with a white margin, 'ALTO EN' and the nutrient in white Arial Bold capitals, signed by the health ministry and clustered near the top right of the front. The brand design survives, but sealed packs lose child-directed characters and toys. Peru, Uruguay, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia followed.

Inter; Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons used Arial Bold (Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders for Monotype, 1982) and Arial Bold in Mexico's NOM-051, Appendix A (A.2.2)

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons, with a counter-accent from Corporate Identity Modernism. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Corporate Identity Modernism Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons (Latin American Food Warning Seals)

#000000 ground · 36%
#ffffff ink · 14%
#ffcc00 accent · 18%
#d7261e accent · 14%
#0a4fa0 accent · 10%
#a4a9ad accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #000000;
  --ink: #ffffff;
  --accent-1: #ffcc00;
  --accent-2: #d7261e;
  --accent-3: #0a4fa0;
  --accent-4: #a4a9ad;
  --font-display: "Inter Tight", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Inter", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons (Latin American Food Warning Seals): The octagons are legal instruments owned by health ministries, and imitating them on real products, in advertising or in generated images can mislead shoppers about a food's composition or pass for an official warning. Use the visual language for health communication, research or clearly fictional work, check each country's current specification before reproducing a seal, and do not turn the warning into decoration or a parody that could make a sign meant to discourage consumption appealing again.

The two styles

A blue circle sits above two mirrored red tapered shapes separated by a widening white gap. Large, bold black lettering reading “Apex” appears underneath on a white background.

1955–1990 · North America, Western Europe, Global / networked Corporate Identity Modernism Modernist reduction applied to corporate communication. A company's whole public face (trademark, logotype, stationery, packaging, vehicles and signage) was unified by an abstract symbol, a single typeface and one colour, all policed by a graphic standards manual. Pioneered by Paul Rand, Chermayeff & Geismar, Unimark and Lippincott & Margulies, it made the reductive mark and the grid the visual language of multinational business and government. 2016–present · Latin America & Caribbean Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons (Latin American Food Warning Seals) A state warning system stacked on commercial food packs. Under Chile's Law 20.606 and Decree 13 (in force 27 June 2016), every packaged food with added sugars, sodium or saturated fat that exceeds the limits for those nutrients or for calories carries one black octagon per nutrient: a stop-sign shape with a white margin, 'ALTO EN' and the nutrient in white Arial Bold capitals, signed by the health ministry and clustered near the top right of the front. The brand design survives, but sealed packs lose child-directed characters and toys. Peru, Uruguay, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia followed.