Stylogeny combining Di Tella Graphic Design × Fileteado Porteño

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Style combination · Contrasts

Di Tella Graphic Design × Fileteado Porteño

Same city, opposite choice: Buenos Aires' ornamental filete against the Di Tella's ornament-free flat-ink modernism; set side by side they show the porteño vernacular and the porteño avant-garde.

From the research on Di Tella Graphic Design (Instituto Torcuato Di Tella)

Mix them and make something Di Tella Graphic Design Fileteado Porteño

WowWowDi Tella × Fileteado Porteño1960 · 1890
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Fileteado Porteño, their arrangement from Di Tella Graphic Design, the finish from Fileteado Porteño. 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.

Di Tella Graphic Design (Instituto Torcuato Di Tella) Fileteado Porteño

Type from Di Tella Graphic Design

Fileteado Porteño avoids grotesque & neo-grotesque: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.

Colour from Di Tella Graphic Design
Form from Fileteado Porteño

Di Tella Graphic Design avoids abundant decoration: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.

Composition from Di Tella Graphic Design
Surface from Fileteado Porteño

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The type

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

Display · Di Tella Graphic Design

Wow

Inter Tight, standing in for Helvetica (with other neo-grotesques for titles and fact blocks; identified on the 1962 sculpture-prize poster by the UNCuyo reader)

Text · Fileteado Porteño

A Buenos Aires tradition of ornamental brush painting that began around 1900 on the grey-painted trade carts of Italian immigrant coachbuilders and spread to trucks, colectivo buses, shop signs and gallery panels. Mirror-symmetric spirals of acanthus, ribbons in the national colours, birds, dragons and flowers are modelled with layered highlights and shadows on dark grounds, framing a lettered name, initials or a witty refrán.

Libre Caslon Text; Fileteado Porteño used Letra gótica and Shaded Roman capitals with drop shadows

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The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Di Tella Graphic Design, with a counter-accent from Fileteado Porteño. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Di Tella Graphic Design (Instituto Torcuato Di Tella) Fileteado Porteño

  • #f3f0e8 ground · 36%
  • #111111 ink · 14%
  • #f5c400 accent · 18%
  • #b89668 accent · 14%
  • #c8102e accent · 10%
  • #95bca7 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f3f0e8;
  --ink: #111111;
  --accent-1: #f5c400;
  --accent-2: #b89668;
  --accent-3: #c8102e;
  --accent-4: #95bca7;
  --font-display: "Inter Tight", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Libre Caslon Text", serif;
}

Use it with care

Fileteado Porteño: Filete porteño is UNESCO-listed intangible heritage (2015) and a living trade: commission or credit fileteadores rather than tracing their published panels, and keep its Argentine emblems and devotional images, such as the Virgin of Luján, in a respectful context.

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The two styles

Huge, narrow black letters spelling “RITMO” fill a cream poster. Their lower portions extend into repeated curved bands and horizontal stripes, interspersed with bright yellow vertical blocks. 1960–1970 · Latin America & Caribbean Di Tella Graphic Design (Instituto Torcuato Di Tella) The in-house graphics of Buenos Aires' Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, 1960–1970, led by Juan Carlos Distéfano with Juan Andralis, Rubén Fontana, Norberto Coppola and Carlos Soler. Swiss order is turned on the avant-garde art it announced: title words blown up into the picture, optical stripes, one or two flat inks (letterpress programmes, offset street posters), square catalogues and double-square programmes. Its rule was that limited means make the style. Fontana later carried its typography into the University of Buenos Aires design course and the magazine tipoGráfica. An ornate sign reads “CAMINOS” in large cream letters with blue details, gold edging and deep red shadows on a black background. Symmetrical painted flowers, leafy scrolls, blue-and-white ribbons and a golden sun with a face surround the lettering inside a red-and-gold border. 1890–present · Latin America & Caribbean Fileteado Porteño A Buenos Aires tradition of ornamental brush painting that began around 1900 on the grey-painted trade carts of Italian immigrant coachbuilders and spread to trucks, colectivo buses, shop signs and gallery panels. Mirror-symmetric spirals of acanthus, ribbons in the national colours, birds, dragons and flowers are modelled with layered highlights and shadows on dark grounds, framing a lettered name, initials or a witty refrán.

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