Stylogeny combining Total Design × Op Art Graphics

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Style combination · Pairs well

Total Design × Op Art Graphics

Line-built letters and op line fields share a module; layer them for vibrating posters that remain strictly systematic.

From the research on Total Design & Dutch Functionalism

Mix them and make something Total Design Op Art Graphics

orbitTotal Design × Op Art Graphics1963 · 1960
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Total Design, their arrangement from Op Art Graphics, the finish from Total 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.

Total Design & Dutch Functionalism Op Art Graphics

Type from Total Design
Colour from Op Art Graphics
Form from Total Design
Composition from Op Art Graphics
Surface from Total Design

02

The type

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

Display · Total Design

Orbit

Inter Tight, standing in for Helvetica

Text · Op Art Graphics

A 1960s style that turned perceptual research into graphic effect: precisely drawn lines, checks, concentric rings and modular grids, usually black and white or complementaries of equal value, that seem to vibrate, swell or move. Rooted in Bauhaus form teaching through Vasarely and Albers and popularised by MoMA's 1965 'The Responsive Eye', it spread quickly into posters, record sleeves, fashion textiles and identities such as Mexico 68.

Jost; Op Art Graphics used Mexico 68 multiline lettering and Futura

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Op Art Graphics, with a counter-accent from Total Design. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Total Design & Dutch Functionalism Op Art Graphics

  • #ffffff ground · 36%
  • #0a0a0a ink · 14%
  • #e3001b accent · 18%
  • #e4352a accent · 14%
  • #0050b5 accent · 10%
  • #00a651 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ffffff;
  --ink: #0a0a0a;
  --accent-1: #e3001b;
  --accent-2: #e4352a;
  --accent-3: #0050b5;
  --accent-4: #00a651;
  --font-display: "Inter Tight", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}

04

The two styles

Oversized lowercase lettering reads “urban rhy thm” in black, red and blue on an off-white background with fine grey grid lines. Rectangles, repeated bars and large blue and black circular segments fill the remaining space. 1963–1990 · Western Europe Total Design & Dutch Functionalism The Dutch strand of systematic modernism took shape when Wim Crouwel, Benno Wissing, Friso Kramer and Paul and Dick Schwarz founded Total Design in Amsterdam in 1963 as the country's first multidisciplinary studio. It pushed Swiss grid logic towards the mechanical: visible grids, alphabets constructed on the same module as the page, and one cool, programmatic order applied to museums, airports and corporations alike. Alternating red and white curved stripes fill the poster, swelling and pinching into a repeating optical illusion of bulges and tunnels. The word “PULSE” appears in tall, multiline red lettering near the center. 1960–1975 · Global / networked Op Art Graphics A 1960s style that turned perceptual research into graphic effect: precisely drawn lines, checks, concentric rings and modular grids, usually black and white or complementaries of equal value, that seem to vibrate, swell or move. Rooted in Bauhaus form teaching through Vasarely and Albers and popularised by MoMA's 1965 'The Responsive Eye', it spread quickly into posters, record sleeves, fashion textiles and identities such as Mexico 68.

05

More combinations

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With Op Art Graphics

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