Stylogeny combining Festival of Britain 'Contemporary' Pattern × Surrealist Graphics

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Style combination · Pairs well

Festival of Britain 'Contemporary' Pattern × Surrealist Graphics

Borrow a Miró-like biomorphic blob or floating sign to push a Contemporary repeat further toward painting.

From the research on Festival of Britain 'Contemporary' Pattern (Lucienne Day and the Festival Pattern Group)

Mix them and make something Festival of Britain 'Contemporary' Pattern Surrealist Graphics

Yay!Festival of × Surrealist Graphics1951 · 1924
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Festival of Britain 'Contemporary' Pattern, their arrangement from Festival of Britain 'Contemporary' Pattern, the finish from Surrealist Graphics. 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.

Festival of Britain 'Contemporary' Pattern (Lucienne Day and the Festival Pattern Group) Surrealist Graphics

Type from Surrealist Graphics
Colour from Festival of Britain 'Contemporary' Pattern
Form from Festival of Britain 'Contemporary' Pattern
Composition from Festival of Britain 'Contemporary' Pattern
Surface from Surrealist Graphics

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The type

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

Display · Surrealist Graphics

Yay!

Gloock; Surrealist Graphics used Artists' hand-lettered mastheads and Didone and Victorian display faces lifted from 19th-century catalogues

Text · Festival of Britain 'Contemporary' Pattern

The post-war British pattern language launched at the 1951 Festival of Britain. Lucienne Day's 'Calyx' for Heal's replaced the revived Victorian floral with spindly lines linking small cup and seedpod shapes, after Klee, Miró and Calder, while the Festival Pattern Group turned X-ray crystal-structure diagrams into wallpapers, dress fabrics and furnishings. Screen-printed in a few flat inks on olive, ochre or white grounds, it set the light 'Contemporary' look of British homes through the 1950s; in the 1960s Day turned to brighter colours and simpler forms.

Jost; Festival of Britain 'Contemporary' Pattern used Festival display lettering used alongside the patterns (posters, catalogues, signs), not in the repeats and Festival display lettering used alongside the patterns, not in the repeats

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The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Festival of Britain 'Contemporary' Pattern, with a counter-accent from Surrealist Graphics. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Festival of Britain 'Contemporary' Pattern (Lucienne Day and the Festival Pattern Group) Surrealist Graphics

  • #f1ece0 ground · 36%
  • #1b1a17 ink · 14%
  • #d4532a accent · 18%
  • #a24a2a accent · 14%
  • #e6cf3e accent · 10%
  • #d8b77a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f1ece0;
  --ink: #1b1a17;
  --accent-1: #d4532a;
  --accent-2: #a24a2a;
  --accent-3: #e6cf3e;
  --accent-4: #d8b77a;
  --font-display: "Gloock", serif;
  --font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}

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The two styles

A cream poster is covered with an interconnecting pattern of thin black stems, semicircular flowers, rounded leaves and small dots in olive green, mustard yellow and burnt orange. Widely spaced olive lettering near the upper right reads “OPEN DAYS.” 1951–1960 · Western Europe Festival of Britain 'Contemporary' Pattern (Lucienne Day and the Festival Pattern Group) The post-war British pattern language launched at the 1951 Festival of Britain. Lucienne Day's 'Calyx' for Heal's replaced the revived Victorian floral with spindly lines linking small cup and seedpod shapes, after Klee, Miró and Calder, while the Festival Pattern Group turned X-ray crystal-structure diagrams into wallpapers, dress fabrics and furnishings. Screen-printed in a few flat inks on olive, ochre or white grounds, it set the light 'Contemporary' look of British homes through the 1950s; in the 1960s Day turned to brighter colours and simpler forms. A distressed, surreal collage combines a large woman's face with a curling seashell, stone staircases, ruined arches, and cliffside buildings above a blue sea. An orange fish floats in the foreground, a tiny person stands on the stairs, and a golden disc hangs among clouds beside the title “The Drift.” 1924–1960 · Western Europe, North America Surrealist Graphics Launched by André Breton's 1924 manifesto, Surrealism sought the marvellous in dreams, chance and the unconscious. Its graphic legacy (uncanny collage from old engravings, solarised and cameraless photographs, impossible juxtapositions painted with illusionistic precision) passed through magazines like Minotaure into fashion, advertising and book design on both sides of the Atlantic.

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