Stylogeny combining Corporate Identity Modernism × Kamon

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Style combination · Pairs well

Corporate Identity Modernism × Kamon

A mon already behaves like a corporate mark (one colour, scalable, placed in fixed positions), as Mitsubishi's three diamonds show; use crest construction rules to build a logo family with codified variants for subsidiaries.

From the research on Kamon (Japanese Family Crests)

Mix them and make something Corporate Identity Modernism Kamon

PublicCorporate Identity × Kamon1955 · 1100
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Kamon, their arrangement from Corporate Identity Modernism, the finish from Corporate Identity Modernism. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

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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 Kamon (Japanese Family Crests)

Type from Corporate Identity Modernism
Colour from Kamon
Form from Kamon
Composition from Corporate Identity Modernism
Surface from Corporate Identity Modernism

02

The type

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

Display · Corporate Identity Modernism

Public

Inter Tight, standing in for Helvetica

Text · Kamon

Japan's family crests: small one-colour emblems that reduce a plant, animal, tool or pattern to a flat silhouette, mirrored or repeated around a centre, often ringed and drawn with compass and brush. Begun on Heian court carriages and spread to samurai and all of society, mon are usually inherited, granted or freely chosen rather than designed, varied in small codified ways for branch families, and placed in fixed positions on formal kimono, shop curtains, lacquer and banners. Covers the formal crest (jōmon), not the decorative coloured kaga-mon or pictorial date-mon and share-mon.

Shippori Mincho; Kamon used Kago-moji, the thick, squared Edo lettering often reversed out in white, for names set beside a crest and Brush-written kaisho (regular-script) kanji for shop names and family names on curtains and lanterns

03

The colours

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

Corporate Identity Modernism Kamon (Japanese Family Crests)

  • #f3efe6 ground · 36%
  • #121212 ink · 14%
  • #b38f3d accent · 18%
  • #d7261e accent · 14%
  • #8c2d25 accent · 10%
  • #0a4fa0 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f3efe6;
  --ink: #121212;
  --accent-1: #b38f3d;
  --accent-2: #d7261e;
  --accent-3: #8c2d25;
  --accent-4: #0a4fa0;
  --font-display: "Inter Tight", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
}

Use it with care

Kamon (Japanese Family Crests): Mon are inherited marks of particular families, shrines, temples and institutions. Only the imperial chrysanthemum is named in Japanese law: the Trademark Act (art. 4(1)(i)) bars registering it or anything like it. The government's paulownia, though the official emblem of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, was never given the same legal restrictions, while famous crests registered as trademarks, such as Mitsubishi's three diamonds, are protected as marks. Do not use the chrysanthemum, the government paulownia, or any identifiable family's, shrine's or temple's crest as decoration or as a brand. Imperial emblems can also recall Japan's wartime empire for audiences in Korea and China. The manji (卍), a standard crest (the Hachisuka clan; the temple crest of Sensō-ji), is read in the West as the Nazi swastika: avoid it outside a Japanese context that explains it. Draw new crests by the tradition's rules instead of borrowing real ones, and commission or credit working monsho uwaeshi, who still draw and paint crests by hand.

04

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. A cream circular floral emblem sits on a black background, with six pointed leaves and six round-tipped stems arranged around a central disc. Below it, widely spaced serif capitals spell “HARMONY.” c. 1100–present · East Asia Kamon (Japanese Family Crests) Japan's family crests: small one-colour emblems that reduce a plant, animal, tool or pattern to a flat silhouette, mirrored or repeated around a centre, often ringed and drawn with compass and brush. Begun on Heian court carriages and spread to samurai and all of society, mon are usually inherited, granted or freely chosen rather than designed, varied in small codified ways for branch families, and placed in fixed positions on formal kimono, shop curtains, lacquer and banners. Covers the formal crest (jōmon), not the decorative coloured kaga-mon or pictorial date-mon and share-mon.

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More combinations

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With Kamon

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