Style combination · Pairs well

Edo-moji Commercial Lettering × Hand-Painted Signage

Both are trade-specific hands written by professional sign writers; combine an Edo-moji name with a Western sign-writer's Roman for a bilingual shopfront, keeping the Japanese hand solid black and without drop shadows.

From the research on Edo-moji Commercial Lettering (Kanteiryū, Yose-moji, Sumō-ji)

Mix them and make something Edo-moji Commercial Lettering Hand-Painted Signage

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Hand-Painted Signage, their arrangement from Edo-moji Commercial Lettering, the finish from Hand-Painted Signage. 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.

Edo-moji Commercial Lettering (Kanteiryū, Yose-moji, Sumō-ji) Hand-Painted Signage & Vernacular Lettering

Type from Edo-moji Commercial Lettering: Hand-lettering
Tight setting
Colour from Edo-moji Commercial Lettering: Monochrome
Flat fields
Form from Hand-Painted Signage: Borders & frames
Restrained accents
Composition from Edo-moji Commercial Lettering: Horror vacui
Central symmetry
Surface from Hand-Painted Signage: Hard offset shadow
Painterly brushwork

The type

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

Display · Edo-moji Commercial Lettering

Square

Yatra One; Edo-moji Commercial Lettering used Kanteiryū (勘亭流, shibai-moji) and Yose-moji (寄席文字)

Text · Hand-Painted Signage

Letters painted by trained sign writers on fascias, windows, walls, vehicles and showcards, from Victorian gold leaf on glass to Mexican rótulos, Indian bazaar boards and Ghanaian barbershop signs. Brush-built letters with shading, drop shadows and outlines are fitted to the panel and mixed in a few styles for hierarchy, valuing legibility at a distance and the painter's flourish; vinyl displaced the craft in the 1980s and it has revived since the 2010s.

Oswald; Hand-Painted Signage used One-stroke casual (showcard) alphabet and Block and Egyptian sign writers' letters

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Edo-moji Commercial Lettering, with a counter-accent from Hand-Painted Signage. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Edo-moji Commercial Lettering (Kanteiryū, Yose-moji, Sumō-ji) Hand-Painted Signage & Vernacular Lettering

#f4efe3 ground · 36%
#151311 ink · 14%
#b8312a accent · 18%
#c99a2e accent · 14%
#d8c8a0 accent · 10%
#22324f accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f4efe3;
  --ink: #151311;
  --accent-1: #b8312a;
  --accent-2: #c99a2e;
  --accent-3: #d8c8a0;
  --accent-4: #22324f;
  --font-display: "Yatra One", cursive;
  --font-text: "Oswald", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Edo-moji Commercial Lettering (Kanteiryū, Yose-moji, Sumō-ji): These are living professional hands: Kanteiryū is written by kabuki calligraphers, yose-moji is taught by the Tachibana school, and sumō-ji is the trained duty of the Japan Sumo Association's gyōji, so commission or credit those writers instead of passing off a font as their work. Senjafuda are votive slips left at shrines and temples and the banzuke's 蒙御免 is a formula of sumo tradition; do not print real shrine names, performers' names or rankings as decoration, and draw characters with their real meanings rather than as pseudo-Japanese texture.

The two styles

A vertically arranged Japanese poster features enormous black brush lettering surrounded by smaller vertical inscriptions in bordered panels. Red sunbursts, black wave motifs, circular three-part emblems, and striped ornaments fill the cream background in a nearly symmetrical design.

1779–present · East Asia Edo-moji Commercial Lettering (Kanteiryū, Yose-moji, Sumō-ji) The fat, ink-heavy brush hands that Edo's professional sign and bill writers made for the city's entertainments: Kanteiryū for kabuki signboards and playbills from 1779, yose-moji for rakugo halls, sumō-ji for sumo ranking sheets, and squarish kago-moji for votive name slips. The stage and sumo hands swell each stroke until little white is left and pack the columns tight, which theatre writers took as a charm for a full house, so a name reads from far off. Kabuki, rakugo and sumo still write in them.

An ornate rectangular sign reads “RIVER MARKET” in large cream-and-gold capital letters on a dark green background, with red shadows on the top word and blue shadows below. Gold borders and scrolling flourishes surround the lettering, with red decorative motifs in the black corners and visible painted texture throughout.

1800–present · Global / networked Hand-Painted Signage & Vernacular Lettering Letters painted by trained sign writers on fascias, windows, walls, vehicles and showcards, from Victorian gold leaf on glass to Mexican rótulos, Indian bazaar boards and Ghanaian barbershop signs. Brush-built letters with shading, drop shadows and outlines are fitted to the panel and mixed in a few styles for hierarchy, valuing legibility at a distance and the painter's flourish; vinyl displaced the craft in the 1980s and it has revived since the 2010s.

More combinations

With Edo-moji Commercial Lettering

All 12 combinations with Edo-moji Commercial Lettering

With Hand-Painted Signage

All 29 combinations with Hand-Painted Signage

Every style combination