Stylogeny combining DTC 'Blanding' × Minimalist Graphic Design

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Style combination · Contrasts

DTC 'Blanding' × Minimalist Graphic Design

Its austere parent: swap pastel and chatty copy back to monochrome and silence when a brand needs authority rather than friendliness.

From the research on DTC 'Blanding' / Millennial Minimalism

Mix them and make something DTC 'Blanding' Minimalist Graphic Design

tideDTC 'Blanding' × Minimalist Graphic
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Minimalist Graphic Design, their arrangement from DTC 'Blanding', the finish from DTC 'Blanding'. 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.

DTC 'Blanding' / Millennial Minimalism Minimalist Graphic Design

Type from DTC 'Blanding'
Colour from Minimalist Graphic Design
Form from Minimalist Graphic Design
Composition from DTC 'Blanding'
Surface from DTC 'Blanding'

02

The type

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

Display · DTC 'Blanding'

Tide

Hanken Grotesk, standing in for Circular (Laurenz Brunner, Lineto, 2013)

Text · Minimalist Graphic Design

Modernism reduced to its barest means, informed by 1960s Minimal art and Japanese emptiness: one image or line of type, vast white or neutral space, a monochrome or near-monochrome palette and meticulous typographic detail. From ECM record sleeves to Muji and Apple packaging, it signals quality, calm and confidence by withholding rather than adding.

Inter; Minimalist Graphic Design used Helvetica Neue and Akzidenz-Grotesk

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Minimalist Graphic Design, with a counter-accent from DTC 'Blanding'. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

DTC 'Blanding' / Millennial Minimalism Minimalist Graphic Design

  • #ffffff ground · 36%
  • #1a1a1a ink · 14%
  • #d9d6d0 accent · 18%
  • #d27c5d accent · 14%
  • #8c8a86 accent · 10%
  • #f2e3a8 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ffffff;
  --ink: #1a1a1a;
  --accent-1: #d9d6d0;
  --accent-2: #d27c5d;
  --accent-3: #8c8a86;
  --accent-4: #f2e3a8;
  --font-display: "Hanken Grotesk", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Inter", sans-serif;
}

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The two styles

A minimalist shopping homepage shows a sage-green water bottle with a loop handle beneath the large terracotta words “good days” on an off-white background. Small navigation links, search and shopping bag icons, and a pink “shop now” button surround the central product. 2012–2022 · North America, Global / networked DTC 'Blanding' / Millennial Minimalism The friendly, frictionless minimalism of 2010s direct-to-consumer start-ups, built for the phone screen, the Instagram feed and the unboxing. Lowercase geometric or neo-grotesque wordmarks, one muted signature colour such as millennial pink, sage or terracotta, seamless-backdrop product photography and chatty copy made mattresses, razors and suitcases look interchangeable, a sameness critics called 'blanding' before brands swung to colourful maximalism around 2021–2022. A minimalist white poster has the widely spaced black words “STILL FARTHER” near the upper left and a large black circle in the lower-right area. Most of the surface is empty white space. 1965–present · Global / networked Minimalist Graphic Design Modernism reduced to its barest means, informed by 1960s Minimal art and Japanese emptiness: one image or line of type, vast white or neutral space, a monochrome or near-monochrome palette and meticulous typographic detail. From ECM record sleeves to Muji and Apple packaging, it signals quality, calm and confidence by withholding rather than adding.

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More combinations

With DTC 'Blanding'

All 18 combinations with DTC 'Blanding'

With Minimalist Graphic Design

All 33 combinations with Minimalist Graphic Design

Every style combination