Stylogeny combining DTC 'Blanding' × Muji No-Brand Design

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Style combination · Contrasts

DTC 'Blanding' × Muji No-Brand Design

Shares the plain sans and isolated product but replaces its friendly pastel persona and funded brand voice with anonymity.

From the research on Muji No-Brand Design (Mujirushi Ryohin)

Mix them and make something DTC 'Blanding' Muji No-Brand Design

tideDTC 'Blanding' × Muji No-Brand Design
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from DTC 'Blanding', their arrangement from DTC 'Blanding', the finish from Muji No-Brand Design. 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.

DTC 'Blanding' / Millennial Minimalism Muji No-Brand Design (Mujirushi Ryohin)

Type from DTC 'Blanding'
Colour from Muji No-Brand Design
Form from DTC 'Blanding'
Composition from DTC 'Blanding'
Surface from Muji No-Brand Design

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 · Muji No-Brand Design

A house style that sells goods by withholding branding: clear cellophane and plain brown paper, plain labels stating the item and its price, and products centred in wide margins. Begun in Tokyo in 1980 under Ikko Tanaka, it makes calm a design method rather than a mood; Kenya Hara, art director since 2001, later articulated this through his idea of emptiness in his writing.

Zen Kaku Gothic New; Muji No-Brand Design used Japanese gothic (kaku gothic) sans-serif, the plain Japanese text tradition for labels and signage and Neutral neo-grotesque Latin sans-serif for English-language labels and signage, in the Helvetica tradition

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Muji No-Brand Design, with a counter-accent from DTC 'Blanding'. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

DTC 'Blanding' / Millennial Minimalism Muji No-Brand Design (Mujirushi Ryohin)

  • #f4f1ea ground · 36%
  • #222222 ink · 14%
  • #d7261e accent · 18%
  • #d27c5d accent · 14%
  • #c9a97c accent · 10%
  • #f4cfc8 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f4f1ea;
  --ink: #222222;
  --accent-1: #d7261e;
  --accent-2: #d27c5d;
  --accent-3: #c9a97c;
  --accent-4: #f4cfc8;
  --font-display: "Hanken Grotesk", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Zen Kaku Gothic New", sans-serif;
}

04

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 large beige, speckled stoneware mug with a handle on the right sits against an off-white background. Bold black text in the upper left reads “Daily Mug,” with the material, capacity and price beneath. 1980–present · East Asia, Global / networked Muji No-Brand Design (Mujirushi Ryohin) A house style that sells goods by withholding branding: clear cellophane and plain brown paper, plain labels stating the item and its price, and products centred in wide margins. Begun in Tokyo in 1980 under Ikko Tanaka, it makes calm a design method rather than a mood; Kenya Hara, art director since 2001, later articulated this through his idea of emptiness in his writing.

05

More combinations

With DTC 'Blanding'

All 18 combinations with DTC 'Blanding'

With Muji No-Brand Design

Every style combination