Stylogeny combining Italian Futurism × Streamline Moderne

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Style combination · Pairs well

Italian Futurism × Streamline Moderne

Combine Futurist lines of force with Streamline speed lines to give transport or tech brands a kinetic retro-futurist voice.

From the research on Italian Futurism

Mix them and make something Italian Futurism Streamline Moderne

CircuitItalian Futurism × Streamline Moderne
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Streamline Moderne, their arrangement from Italian Futurism, the finish from Streamline Moderne. 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.

Italian Futurism Streamline Moderne

Type from Italian Futurism
Colour from Streamline Moderne
Form from Streamline Moderne
Composition from Italian Futurism
Surface from Streamline Moderne

02

The type

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

Display · Italian Futurism

Circuit

Alfa Slab One, standing in for Mixed jobbing grotesques, Egyptians and Didones from the printer's case

Text · Streamline Moderne

The late, chiefly American phase of Art Deco, in which aerodynamic science became a visual language for a Depression-era culture hungry for progress. Industrial designers and illustrators wrapped trains, radios, diners and posters in teardrop curves, horizontal speed lines, rounded corners and airbrushed chrome, selling the 'World of Tomorrow' at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

Jost; Streamline Moderne used Huxley Vertical and Agency Gothic

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Streamline Moderne, with a counter-accent from Italian Futurism. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Italian Futurism Streamline Moderne

  • #e8dcc2 ground · 36%
  • #2b2b2b ink · 14%
  • #d9822b accent · 18%
  • #f2b705 accent · 14%
  • #1f3a5f accent · 10%
  • #d22b1f accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #e8dcc2;
  --ink: #2b2b2b;
  --accent-1: #d9822b;
  --accent-2: #f2b705;
  --accent-3: #1f3a5f;
  --accent-4: #d22b1f;
  --font-display: "Alfa Slab One", serif;
  --font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}

04

The two styles

1909–1944 · Southern Europe Italian Futurism Launched by Marinetti's 1909 manifesto, Futurism glorified speed, machines, the city and war, and turned the printed page into an explosive, noisy field. Its 'words in freedom' scattered type of every size and face across diagonals and spirals, while Depero's advertising of the 1920s–30s recast the same dynamism as bold, mechanical commercial art. A streamlined silver-and-orange passenger train races along converging tracks beneath the large word “SKYLINE.” Rounded futuristic towers rise against a large pale sun in a deep blue sky. 1930–1945 · North America Streamline Moderne The late, chiefly American phase of Art Deco, in which aerodynamic science became a visual language for a Depression-era culture hungry for progress. Industrial designers and illustrators wrapped trains, radios, diners and posters in teardrop curves, horizontal speed lines, rounded corners and airbrushed chrome, selling the 'World of Tomorrow' at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

05

More combinations

With Italian Futurism

With Streamline Moderne

Every style combination