Style combination · Pairs well

Hand-Painted Signage × Hong Kong Neon

Its daylight relative: carry a Beiwei signboard's characters onto a painted fascia with drop shadows so a shop reads the same by day and by night.

From the research on Hong Kong Neon & Beiwei Shop-Sign Lettering

Mix them and make something Hand-Painted Signage Hong Kong Neon

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Hand-Painted Signage, their arrangement from Hong Kong Neon, 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.

Hand-Painted Signage & Vernacular Lettering Hong Kong Neon & Beiwei Shop-Sign Lettering

Type from Hong Kong Neon: Brush & pen calligraphy
Rotated & vertical setting
Colour from Hong Kong Neon: Fluorescent & neon
Dark ground
Form from Hand-Painted Signage: Borders & frames
Restrained accents
Composition from Hong Kong Neon: Horror vacui
Collage & layering
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 · Hong Kong Neon

Together

Shippori Mincho, standing in for Beiwei kaishu (Northern Wei stele-style regular script), as written by Au Kin-kung

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 Hong Kong Neon, with a counter-accent from Hand-Painted Signage. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Hand-Painted Signage & Vernacular Lettering Hong Kong Neon & Beiwei Shop-Sign Lettering

#0d0d14 ground · 36%
#39ff88 ink · 14%
#ff8a1f accent · 18%
#c99a2e accent · 14%
#ff2a3d accent · 10%
#b8262b accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #0d0d14;
  --ink: #39ff88;
  --accent-1: #ff8a1f;
  --accent-2: #c99a2e;
  --accent-3: #ff2a3d;
  --accent-4: #b8262b;
  --font-display: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
  --font-text: "Oswald", sans-serif;
}

The two styles

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.

A densely ornamented neon-style sign on black displays four large red Chinese characters between mirrored multicoloured dragons. A crescent moon, clouds, lanterns, horned skulls, steaming teacups, a floral teapot and waves fill the surrounding decorative frame.

1950–present · East Asia Hong Kong Neon & Beiwei Shop-Sign Lettering The night-time signscape of Hong Kong's Kowloon streets. Shop names written by commercial calligraphers in Beiwei kaishu, a square, heavy, chisel-edged script descended from Northern Wei stone steles, were bent by neon makers into glass tube and cantilevered over the road. Vertical Chinese, horizontal English, double-line borders and trade emblems such as the pawnshop's bat and coin stack into a dense canyon of light, thinned by signboard controls since the 2000s.

More combinations

With Hand-Painted Signage

All 29 combinations with Hand-Painted Signage

With Hong Kong Neon

All 10 combinations with Hong Kong Neon

Every style combination