Stylogeny combining Cubist Pictorial Space × Low Poly Illustration

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Style combination · Contrasts

Cubist Pictorial Space × Low Poly Illustration

Cubism breaks an object into planes seen from several viewpoints at once and flattens the space; low poly facets it from one consistent viewpoint and keeps the perspective. Borrow Cubist overlap only when ambiguity, not legibility, is the point.

From the research on Low Poly Illustration

Mix them and make something Cubist Pictorial Space Low Poly Illustration

HELLOCubist Pictorial Space × Low Poly Illustration
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Low Poly Illustration, their arrangement from Cubist Pictorial Space, the finish from Cubist Pictorial Space. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

01

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.

Cubist Pictorial Space Low Poly Illustration

Type from Cubist Pictorial Space
Colour from Low Poly Illustration
Form from Low Poly Illustration
Composition from Cubist Pictorial Space
Surface from Cubist Pictorial Space

Low Poly Illustration avoids painterly brushwork and paper & letterpress bite: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.

02

The type

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

Display · Cubist Pictorial Space

Hello

Allerta Stencil, standing in for Sign-painters' stencilled capitals (Braque, from 1911)

Text · Low Poly Illustration

A digital illustration and game look in which subjects are built from a visible mesh of a few flat-shaded polygons, so that animals, faces, vehicles and landscapes read as hard-edged facets with no outline or texture. Around 2012 the polygon budgets of early real-time 3D became a chosen style, in Timothy J. Reynolds's Cinema 4D illustrations and then in indie games such as MirrorMoon EP (2013). Triangulation tools such as Trianglify then carried it into 2D vector art, posters and web backgrounds.

Jost; Low Poly Illustration used Faceted display faces that replace every curve with straight segments, such as Ray Larabie's Alphii (Typodermic, 2006), which in the foundry's words 'does not imitate a mesh or toolpath; it shares their economy' and A clean geometric sans set flat beside the faceted picture, so the letters stay legible while the mesh carries the image

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Low Poly Illustration, with a counter-accent from Cubist Pictorial Space. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Cubist Pictorial Space Low Poly Illustration

  • #f1e8d0 ground · 36%
  • #163a4f ink · 14%
  • #e8704f accent · 18%
  • #8b6b3e accent · 14%
  • #3fa58a accent · 10%
  • #c9b48a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f1e8d0;
  --ink: #163a4f;
  --accent-1: #e8704f;
  --accent-2: #8b6b3e;
  --accent-3: #3fa58a;
  --accent-4: #c9b48a;
  --font-display: "Allerta Stencil", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}

04

The two styles

A distressed, angular collage in ochre, cream, dark teal and black shows a hat-wearing figure beside coffee cherries and an open sack of coffee beans. A river, arched bridge, buildings and sun surround a tilted panel reading “RIVER BEANS.” 1907–1925 · Western Europe Cubist Pictorial Space The pictorial revolution of Picasso and Braque that shattered single-point perspective into overlapping, faceted planes seen from several viewpoints at once. Through papier collé and stencilled lettering it brought real printed matter and type onto the picture plane, handing graphic design the fragment, the shallow layered plane and collage as working tools. A faceted geometric illustration shows a hiker with an orange backpack standing on a rocky cliff above a winding river, evergreen forests, and mountain peaks. A large pale sun hangs over the valley beneath the word “FURTHER.” 2012–present · Global / networked Low Poly Illustration A digital illustration and game look in which subjects are built from a visible mesh of a few flat-shaded polygons, so that animals, faces, vehicles and landscapes read as hard-edged facets with no outline or texture. Around 2012 the polygon budgets of early real-time 3D became a chosen style, in Timothy J. Reynolds's Cinema 4D illustrations and then in indie games such as MirrorMoon EP (2013). Triangulation tools such as Trianglify then carried it into 2D vector art, posters and web backgrounds.

05

More combinations

With Cubist Pictorial Space

With Low Poly Illustration

Every style combination