Style combination · Contrasts

DTC 'Blanding' × Modern Calligraphy and Brush Lettering

The same years' pastels and white space, but blanding speaks in a lowercase geometric sans and seamless product photographs that made brands look interchangeable, while modern calligraphy writes one name by hand for one occasion. Choose between a brand's frictionless sameness and a personal hand.

From the research on Modern Calligraphy and Brush Lettering

Mix them and make something DTC 'Blanding' Modern Calligraphy and Brush Lettering

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Modern Calligraphy and Brush Lettering, their arrangement from DTC 'Blanding', the finish from Modern Calligraphy and Brush Lettering. 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.

DTC 'Blanding' / Millennial Minimalism Modern Calligraphy and Brush Lettering

Type from Modern Calligraphy and Brush Lettering: Script
Hand-lettering
Colour from DTC 'Blanding': Pastel
Flat fields
Form from Modern Calligraphy and Brush Lettering: Whiplash line
Biomorphic curves
Composition from DTC 'Blanding': Isolated object
Generous white space
Surface from Modern Calligraphy and Brush Lettering: Painterly brushwork
Paper & letterpress bite

The type

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

Display · Modern Calligraphy and Brush Lettering

Kin

Kaushan Script, standing in for Brush-pen script (brush lettering): thick downstrokes and thin upstrokes from felt-tip brush pens, brushes and paint pens, often in watercolour

Text · DTC 'Blanding'

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.

Hanken Grotesk; DTC 'Blanding' used Circular and Graphik

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from DTC 'Blanding', with a counter-accent from Modern Calligraphy and Brush Lettering. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

DTC 'Blanding' / Millennial Minimalism Modern Calligraphy and Brush Lettering

#faf7f2 ground · 39%
#2b2b2b ink · 15%
#d27c5d accent · 20%
#f4cfc8 accent · 15%
#a9b8a1 accent · 11%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #faf7f2;
  --ink: #2b2b2b;
  --accent-1: #d27c5d;
  --accent-2: #f4cfc8;
  --accent-3: #a9b8a1;
  --font-display: "Kaushan Script", cursive;
  --font-text: "Hanken Grotesk", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Modern Calligraphy and Brush Lettering: Modern calligraphy is a living trade of freelance calligraphers who sell wedding commissions, workshops and scanned alphabets: commission or license a hand instead of tracing a calligrapher's published names, quotes or practice sheets, and never present a generated hand as the work of a named letterer. Image models write pseudo-script with missing, doubled or garbled letters, so have every word written by hand or checked letter by letter before it goes on an invitation or a sign.

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.

The word “Bloom” appears in large, flowing dark blue calligraphy on an ivory background. Symmetrical watercolor-style arrangements of pale pink flowers, green leaves, and fine stems with golden dots frame it above and below.

2005–present · North America, Western Europe, Global / networked Modern Calligraphy and Brush Lettering The loose pointed-pen and brush-pen script of wedding stationery and the 2010s craft boom. It keeps copperplate's thick downstrokes and hairline upstrokes but drops the fixed slant and baseline, so letters bounce, loop and trail long exit strokes. A name or short phrase sits centred on white or cream stock in black, gold or watercolour, often among painted leaves. Taught in manuals from 2013, it became a mass hobby; the type designer Ale Paul saw 'an almost invasive DIY streak' in the wider lettering boom (2015), and by 2025 Monotype called it 'the norm' for weddings, cliché and all.

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