Style combination · Pairs well
Instagram Slideshow Activism × Punk
The New York Times called swipe-through guides the new zines; borrow cut-and-paste collage and hand lettering to break the template sameness and look made by a person, not a kit.
Mix them and make something Instagram Slideshow Activism Punk
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.
Instagram Slideshow Activism (Social-Justice Infographics) Punk & DIY Zine
- Type from Punk
- Colour from Instagram Slideshow Activism
- Form from Instagram Slideshow Activism
- Composition from Instagram Slideshow Activism
- Surface from Punk
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Instagram Slideshow Activism avoids photocopy & distress: this is where the two pull against each other.
02
The type
Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.
Text · Instagram Slideshow Activism
The text-led explainer slideshows that filled Instagram after George Floyd's murder in May 2020. Up to ten square or 4:5 slides in one carousel (twenty since August 2024) are read like a PowerPoint deck: a title card in big type with a swipe arrow, then bullet-point slides with sources and a call to action. Pastel pink, yellow and blue grounds, large serif or bubbly, wide sans headings, gradients and playful flat figures, often from Canva templates, borrow the look of millennial brands to reach apolitical readers.
Inter; Instagram Slideshow Activism used Large display serifs on the title card and Ovo (Nicole Fally, Sorkin Type, 2011), a medium-contrast serif with soft serifs and old-style letter widths
03
The colours
The ground and leading colours come from Instagram Slideshow Activism, with a counter-accent from Punk. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.
Instagram Slideshow Activism (Social-Justice Infographics) Punk & DIY Zine
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#fdf6ecground · 36% -
#1e1e1eink · 14% -
#c9962caccent · 18% -
#ff2fa0accent · 14% -
#b9d7eeaccent · 10% -
#d7191caccent · 8%
As CSS
:root {
--ground: #fdf6ec;
--ink: #1e1e1e;
--accent-1: #c9962c;
--accent-2: #ff2fa0;
--accent-3: #b9d7ee;
--accent-4: #d7191c;
--font-display: "Rock Salt", cursive;
--font-text: "Inter", sans-serif;
}Use it with care
Instagram Slideshow Activism (Social-Justice Infographics): The look grew out of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, and critics such as the sociologist Eve Ewing warned that slides flatten complex problems and summarise the work of often Black authors without credit: name and link every source, credit the people whose work you condense, and check claims before posting. Do not turn the names and faces of people killed by police into decorative or shareable motifs; Vox quotes a warning that the look can 'commodify tragedy and obfuscate revolutionary messages' and notes that Breonna Taylor's death 'devolved into a meme'. Do not dress brand marketing in the look to perform allyship without action, and remember that its friendly packaging works for any message, including an army's messaging in an armed conflict (the IDF slideshow of May 2021) and misinformation, which text inside images makes hard to moderate. Write the slide text into the caption or alt text so screen-reader users can follow it.
04
The two styles
05
More combinations
With Instagram Slideshow Activism
- ACT UP & Gran Fury AIDS Activist Graphics Contrasts · Its confrontational opposite: black grounds, hot pink and one blunt slogan, where the typical slideshow shuns 'blood red or black messaging' (Ría Thompson-Washington) and softens the message to stay comfortable.
- Internet Ugly & Meme Vernacular Contrasts · The meme vernacular is its ironic other and the language of its parodies: crude, found and knowing where the slideshow is polished and sincere.
- Isotype Pictorial Statistics Pairs well · Turn a slide of bullet-point statistics into rows of counted pictograms so the numbers are shown, not just asserted, without losing the friendly flat look.
- Newsroom Data Graphics & Scrollytelling Contrasts · Sourced charts with a stated finding are the next step from a slide of bare bullet-point claims; the source line on every slide is common ground, since @soyouwanttotalkabout's maker said hers stood out for 'including sources at the bottom of every slide'.
- Latin American Feminist Protest Graphics (Ni Una Menos and the Green Wave) Contrasts · The hashtags #NiUnaMenos and #VivasNosQueremos also travelled on Facebook and Instagram, but their images point to a march, a wall or a scarf, whereas the slideshow lives and ends in the carousel in pastel templates.
With Punk
- Russian Constructivism Pairs well · Borrow Constructivist diagonals and red-and-black bars to give punk collage the agitprop structure post-punk sleeves later adopted.
- Risograph & Indie Print Culture Pairs well · Run punk collages through a riso in fluoro pink and black to keep the DIY ethic while gaining richer, layered colour.
- Corporate Identity Modernism Contrasts · Deface a clean corporate identity with xerox collage to make the critique of polish and authority explicit.
- Frutiger Aero Contrasts · Glossy optimism is everything punk rejects; one torn xerox fragment on an aero gradient reads as instant sabotage.
- Fluxus Graphics (Maciunas) Contrasts · Both mix found type with appropriated pictures, but punk tears and photocopies while Fluxus keeps a clean offset black, justified blocks and a tight edge-to-edge grid; use the Fluxus version when cheap materials should still look ordered.
- Natural Wine Label Art Pairs well · Alice Feiring calls the earlier natural-wine scene punk rock: of Gut Oggau she says 'This is where things grow up and stop being so punk rock' (Punch, 2021). Take punk's refusal of professional polish but drop the collage and the anger: one felt-pen picture on a white label carries the same do-it-yourself stance in a friendlier voice.
- Grapus (French Militant Graphic Collective) Contrasts · Both scribble over photographs, but punk's photocopied blacks and ransom-note type are cheap and nihilist, while Grapus prints bright offset colour, mostly on white, in an optimistic, party-backed voice.
- Situationist Détournement Graphics Contrasts · Punk reprised the situationist prank in the late 1970s, but it packs torn photocopies and mixed type into crowded pages; détournement keeps a few recognisable fragments and lets each one say the opposite of what it said. Borrow the rewritten balloon when a punk layout needs a sharper argument.