Corporate Identity Modernism × Surrealist Graphics

Place a single dream image inside a strict corporate grid; the calm system heightens the strangeness.

From the research on Surrealist Graphics

Mix them and make something Corporate Identity Modernism Surrealist Graphics

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Surrealist Graphics, their arrangement from Corporate Identity Modernism, the finish from Surrealist Graphics. 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 Surrealist Graphics

Type from Corporate Identity Modernism: Grotesque & neo-grotesque
Geometric sans
Colour from Corporate Identity Modernism: Limited spot colours
Flat fields
Form from Surrealist Graphics: Naturalistic depiction
Distortion & exaggeration
Composition from Corporate Identity Modernism: Isolated object
Single focal point
Surface from Surrealist Graphics

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 · Surrealist Graphics

Launched by André Breton's 1924 manifesto, Surrealism sought the marvellous in dreams, chance and the unconscious. Its graphic legacy (uncanny collage from old engravings, solarised and cameraless photographs, impossible juxtapositions painted with illusionistic precision) passed through magazines like Minotaure into fashion, advertising and book design on both sides of the Atlantic.

Bodoni Moda; Surrealist Graphics used Artists' hand-lettered mastheads and Didone and Victorian display faces lifted from 19th-century catalogues

The colours

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

Corporate Identity Modernism Surrealist Graphics

#ffffff ground · 36%
#111111 ink · 14%
#d7261e accent · 18%
#a24a2a accent · 14%
#0a4fa0 accent · 10%
#d8b77a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ffffff;
  --ink: #111111;
  --accent-1: #d7261e;
  --accent-2: #a24a2a;
  --accent-3: #0a4fa0;
  --accent-4: #d8b77a;
  --font-display: "Inter Tight", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Bodoni Moda", serif;
}

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 distressed, surreal collage combines a large woman's face with a curling seashell, stone staircases, ruined arches, and cliffside buildings above a blue sea. An orange fish floats in the foreground, a tiny person stands on the stairs, and a golden disc hangs among clouds beside the title “The Drift.”

1924–1960 · Western Europe, North America Surrealist Graphics Launched by André Breton's 1924 manifesto, Surrealism sought the marvellous in dreams, chance and the unconscious. Its graphic legacy (uncanny collage from old engravings, solarised and cameraless photographs, impossible juxtapositions painted with illusionistic precision) passed through magazines like Minotaure into fashion, advertising and book design on both sides of the Atlantic.

More combinations

With Corporate Identity Modernism

All 28 combinations with Corporate Identity Modernism

With Surrealist Graphics

All 18 combinations with Surrealist Graphics

Every style combination