Style combination · Contrasts

Ghanaian Movie Poster × Matatu

Both are commissioned African street art built on looming painted heads, but Ghana's posters are gestural sign-painter enamel on flour sacks that invent gore and muscle for a film, while the nganya's stars are smooth, airbrushed likenesses fitted to a glossy vehicle body.

From the research on Matatu & Nganya Art

Mix them and make something Ghanaian Movie Poster Matatu

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Ghanaian Movie Poster, their arrangement from Matatu, the finish from Ghanaian Movie Poster. 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.

Ghanaian Movie Poster Matatu & Nganya Art

Type from Matatu: Ornamented display
Hand-lettering
Colour from Matatu: Full polychrome
Gradients
Form from Ghanaian Movie Poster: Distortion & exaggeration
Naturalistic depiction
Composition from Matatu: Full bleed
Extreme scale contrast
Surface from Ghanaian Movie Poster: Painterly brushwork

The type

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

Display · Matatu

Ours

Sedgwick Ave Display, standing in for Airbrushed 3D graffiti capitals ('Catalyst', 'Ferrari', 'Lamborghini')

Text · Ghanaian Movie Poster

Hand-painted posters commissioned by Ghana's mobile video clubs from about 1985, painted by apprenticed sign painters on stitched flour sacks to advertise VHS screenings of Hollywood, Hong Kong, Nigerian and Indian films. Often without having seen the film, artists invented gory, supernatural and hyper-muscular scenes around looming heads and hand-lettered titles, producing one of the most uninhibited poster vernaculars anywhere.

Archivo; Ghanaian Movie Poster used Hand-painted outlined block capitals and Sign-painter shaded and drop-shadowed letters

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Matatu, with a counter-accent from Ghanaian Movie Poster. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Ghanaian Movie Poster Matatu & Nganya Art

#0e0e12 ground · 36%
#ffd21f ink · 14%
#1f6bff accent · 18%
#ff2a8a accent · 14%
#c1121f accent · 10%
#e8312a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #0e0e12;
  --ink: #ffd21f;
  --accent-1: #1f6bff;
  --accent-2: #ff2a8a;
  --accent-3: #c1121f;
  --accent-4: #e8312a;
  --font-display: "Sedgwick Ave Display", cursive;
  --font-text: "Archivo", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Matatu & Nganya Art: Matatu art is the living trade of named Kenyan garage painters and the culture of the young crews and passengers who ride the routes, so commission and credit Kenyan painters rather than lifting a particular vehicle's design, name or a painter's signature. Its portraits show real people (musicians, athletes, politicians), so do not reproduce a real person's likeness or a brand's logo in commercial work without rights, and never present a generated image as a real nganya. Kenya's police chief has said he loves art "but not one that celebrates gangsters or violence", and the Matatu Owners Association bars insulting, inciting, pornographic, alcohol and violence content: do not use it as shorthand for lawlessness or as a generic "chaotic African bus" backdrop.