Stylogeny combining Graffiti × Jamaican Dancehall Signs

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Style combination · Pairs well

Graffiti × Jamaican Dancehall Signs

Add graffiti's outlines and drop blocks to dancehall's stacked names for wall-scale event lettering.

From the research on Jamaican Dancehall Signs & Sleeve Art

Mix them and make something Graffiti Jamaican Dancehall Signs

TogetherTogetherGraffiti × Jamaican Dancehall1972 · 1980
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Graffiti, their arrangement from Jamaican Dancehall Signs, the finish from Graffiti. 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.

Graffiti & Hip-Hop Graphics Jamaican Dancehall Signs & Sleeve Art

Type from Graffiti
Colour from Jamaican Dancehall Signs
Form from Graffiti
Composition from Jamaican Dancehall Signs
Surface from Graffiti

02

The type

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

Display · Graffiti

Together

Sedgwick Ave Display, standing in for Wildstyle lettering

Text · Jamaican Dancehall Signs

The street graphics of Jamaica's dancehall era. One-off hand-painted signs, nailed to light poles and trees, announce sound-system dances and clashes, with sound-system and artist names stacked in bold, bright letters. On record sleeves, Wilfred Limonious's crowded comic caricatures gave the music its face. Both are ephemeral and topical: the signs are mostly unsigned, rarely dated and burned as litter once the dance is over.

Archivo; Jamaican Dancehall Signs used Hand-painted block and outlined capitals with drop shadows and Wilfred Limonious's hand-drawn cartoon titling and speech balloons

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Jamaican Dancehall Signs, with a counter-accent from Graffiti. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Graffiti & Hip-Hop Graphics Jamaican Dancehall Signs & Sleeve Art

  • #ffd400 ground · 36%
  • #111111 ink · 14%
  • #e3241b accent · 18%
  • #1d5fd0 accent · 14%
  • #00a3e0 accent · 10%
  • #ff4f9a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ffd400;
  --ink: #111111;
  --accent-1: #e3241b;
  --accent-2: #1d5fd0;
  --accent-3: #00a3e0;
  --accent-4: #ff4f9a;
  --font-display: "Sedgwick Ave Display", cursive;
  --font-text: "Archivo", sans-serif;
}

04

The two styles

Oversized, multicoloured graffiti lettering reading “BEATZ” fills the poster, surrounded by paint splashes, arrows, stars and a yellow crown. A city skyline and suspension bridge appear above, with a boombox, vinyl records, subway train and spray can below. 1972–present · North America, Global / networked Graffiti & Hip-Hop Graphics Born on New York's subway cars and Bronx party flyers, graffiti writing turns the writer's name into a monumental letter-sculpture: bubble, block and wildstyle letters with arrows, 3D drop shadows, fades and highlights, painted freehand in aerosol. Hip-hop's flyers, sleeves and logos carried the same lettering, cartoon characters and street swagger into print and then around the world. A brightly painted sign reads “BASSWAR” in enormous yellow letters above “RUMBLE VS UPRISING,” with the date, venue and admission price along the bottom. Red, green, blue and pink lightning bolts and jagged starbursts fill the spaces around the thick, shadowed lettering. 1980–present · Latin America & Caribbean Jamaican Dancehall Signs & Sleeve Art The street graphics of Jamaica's dancehall era. One-off hand-painted signs, nailed to light poles and trees, announce sound-system dances and clashes, with sound-system and artist names stacked in bold, bright letters. On record sleeves, Wilfred Limonious's crowded comic caricatures gave the music its face. Both are ephemeral and topical: the signs are mostly unsigned, rarely dated and burned as litter once the dance is over.

05

More combinations

With Graffiti

All 17 combinations with Graffiti

With Jamaican Dancehall Signs

Every style combination