Czech Poetist Book Design × Zenitism

Another Central European offshoot of constructivist tools; borrow Poetism's lightness to soften Zenit's agitation.

From the research on Zenitism (Zenit Magazine Typography)

Mix them and make something Czech Poetist Book Design Zenitism

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Zenitism, their arrangement from Czech Poetist Book Design, the finish from Czech Poetist Book Design. 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.

Czech Poetist Book Design (Devětsil) Zenitism (Zenit Magazine Typography)

Type from Zenitism: Eclectic mixing
Type as image
Colour from Czech Poetist Book Design: Limited spot colours
Flat fields
Form from Zenitism: Non-representational
Rules & bars
Composition from Czech Poetist Book Design: Dynamic asymmetry
Collage & layering
Surface from Czech Poetist Book Design: Flat

The type

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

Display · Zenitism

Tomorrow

Archivo Black; Zenitism used Mixed printers' display capitals set at contrasting sizes and Passages printed in several languages, untranslated

Text · Czech Poetist Book Design

The book and magazine design of the Czech Devětsil circle, where Karel Teige and his colleagues turned constructivist tools (asymmetry, sans and slab capitals, heavy bars, photomontage) toward Poetism's lyrical celebration of travel, cinema, jazz and the circus. Covers and 'picture poems' set type among postcards, ocean liners and aeroplanes, and in Abeceda (1926) a dancer's body poses as each letter of the alphabet.

Inter; Czech Poetist Book Design used Jobbing grotesque capitals from Prague print shops and Egyptienne slab-serif display capitals

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Czech Poetist Book Design, with a counter-accent from Zenitism. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Czech Poetist Book Design (Devětsil) Zenitism (Zenit Magazine Typography)

#f2ebdc ground · 36%
#161514 ink · 14%
#e9b52c accent · 18%
#c8281f accent · 14%
#2a4f8a accent · 10%
#8a8274 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f2ebdc;
  --ink: #161514;
  --accent-1: #e9b52c;
  --accent-2: #c8281f;
  --accent-3: #2a4f8a;
  --accent-4: #8a8274;
  --font-display: "Archivo Black", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Inter", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Zenitism (Zenit Magazine Typography): Micić later moved toward Serbian nationalism, and the 'barbarogenius' Balkan rhetoric is ethnonational. Treat Zenit as a historical avant-garde periodical, not a neutral look, and do not use its Balkan-primitivist framing as decorative exoticism.

The two styles

A retro travel poster reading “SOLAR TRIP” combines a large black-and-white image of a smiling woman in a swimsuit with a coastal town, a vintage bus on a winding seaside road, and divers above the water. Red diagonal shapes, blue stripes and sea, a yellow sun, and rows of dots decorate the cream background.

1922–1938 · Central Europe Czech Poetist Book Design (Devětsil) The book and magazine design of the Czech Devětsil circle, where Karel Teige and his colleagues turned constructivist tools (asymmetry, sans and slab capitals, heavy bars, photomontage) toward Poetism's lyrical celebration of travel, cinema, jazz and the circus. Covers and 'picture poems' set type among postcards, ocean liners and aeroplanes, and in Abeceda (1926) a dancer's body poses as each letter of the alphabet.

Oversized, tilted letters reading “NOVI” and “PLAN” sit among red, blue, black and gray geometric shapes on a textured cream background. Long black triangular wedges converge over a large red circle near the lower right.

1921–1926 · Southern Europe, Central Europe Zenitism (Zenit Magazine Typography) Ljubomir Micić's Yugoslav avant-garde: the monthly Zenit (43 issues, 1921-1926) and its 'abstract metacosmic expressionism' and Balkan 'barbarogenius', a 'modern primitive'. Unlike Mavo or Constructivism it has expressionist roots, Balkan-primitivist doctrine and a multilingual review; it was twice banned. Page design is thinly sourced, so design traits are tentative. Micić later turned to Serbian nationalism; the 'barbarogenius' rhetoric is ethnonational. Wikipedia says Zenitism distanced itself from Dada.

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