Style combination · Pairs well

Corporate Identity Modernism × Ottoman Tughra

Treat the tughra as an early counterpart of the corporate mark: one owned sign carried across decrees, coins, seals, gates and stamps. Borrow corporate modernism's discipline of application, but draw a new Arabic-script mark with a calligrapher rather than reducing a historical tughra to a logo.

From the research on Ottoman Tughra & Dîvânî Chancery Calligraphy

Mix them and make something Corporate Identity Modernism Ottoman Tughra

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Ottoman Tughra, their arrangement from Corporate Identity Modernism, the finish from Corporate Identity Modernism. 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 Ottoman Tughra & Dîvânî Chancery Calligraphy

Type from Ottoman Tughra: Brush & pen calligraphy
Type as image
Colour from Corporate Identity Modernism: Limited spot colours
Flat fields
Form from Ottoman Tughra: Emblems & badges
Whiplash line
Composition from Corporate Identity Modernism: Isolated object
Single focal point
Surface from Corporate Identity Modernism: Flat

The type

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

Display · Ottoman Tughra

Notice

Cinzel, standing in for Celî dîvânî, the monumental form for panels and inscriptions, mastered by the leading dîvânî calligraphers such as Sâmi Efendi and Kâmil Akdik; after the 1928 alphabet reform it lived on in a few celî dîvânî panels by famous calligraphers of the last generation, and dîvânî is still taught in Cairo

Text · 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.

Inter; Corporate Identity Modernism used Helvetica and Univers

The colours

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

Corporate Identity Modernism Ottoman Tughra & Dîvânî Chancery Calligraphy

#ffffff ground · 36%
#111111 ink · 14%
#d7261e accent · 18%
#2e4ea6 accent · 14%
#bf9a52 accent · 10%
#a4a9ad accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ffffff;
  --ink: #111111;
  --accent-1: #d7261e;
  --accent-2: #2e4ea6;
  --accent-3: #bf9a52;
  --accent-4: #a4a9ad;
  --font-display: "Cinzel", serif;
  --font-text: "Inter", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Ottoman Tughra & Dîvânî Chancery Calligraphy: A tughra is the personal mark of one sovereign and spells his name with a prayer for victory: do not redraw a historical sultan's tughra as a brand logo, product stamp or decorative texture, do not present a new design as a historical one, and never fill the form with invented pseudo-Arabic. The calligraphy behind the tughra and Dîvânî, hüsn-i hat, is a living craft passed on through apprenticeship (UNESCO Representative List, 2021), so commission a hattat for a new tughra and have every word read by a fluent reader of Ottoman Turkish. The tughra is also a sign of Ottoman rule: where that rule is remembered as conquest, as in parts of the Balkans, Greece, Armenia and the Arab world, or is invoked by nationalist politics, it can read as a claim to that rule, so check how the audience will read it. The tughra form is also used for sacred texts, such as Qur'anic verses, hadith and the names of the founders of Sufi orders, and Popov showed a 'tughra of Allah' in Kazan; such compositions follow the parent tradition's rules: never crop, distort or mirror them, and keep them off floors, footwear and throwaway surfaces.

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. c. 1324–present · Middle East & North Africa, Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, South Asia Ottoman Tughra & Dîvânî Chancery Calligraphy The Ottoman sultan's calligraphic monogram and the chancery hand written beneath it. From Orhan in 1324 each sultan had his own tughra, composed at his accession and redrawn by hand on every decree: his name and titles stacked at the base, three tall shafts, two nested loops sweeping left and arms reaching right. Struck on coins and carved over gates, it was at its grandest lettered in blue outlined in gold, its loops filled with scrolls and blossoms. Below it ran Dîvânî, a slanting, tightly packed hand. A counterpart of the European royal cypher: one owned mark carried across every medium.