Style combination · Pairs well

Islamic Geometric × Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism

Take its star-and-polygon tilings at full strength for the grille or the mosaic field, then set them on a plain concrete slab beside secular figures instead of sacred script.

From the research on Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism

Mix them and make something Islamic Geometric Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism, their arrangement from Islamic Geometric, the finish from Islamic Geometric. 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.

Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism

Type from Islamic Geometric: Brush & pen calligraphy
Type as image
Colour from Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism: Jewel & metallic
Full polychrome
Form from Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism: Non-representational
Geometric tessellation
Composition from Islamic Geometric: All-over field
Central symmetry
Surface from Islamic Geometric: Flat

The type

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

Display · Islamic Geometric

New

Reem Kufi, standing in for Kufic (including square bannāʾī Kufic)

Text · Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism

The monumental art of Soviet Central Asia after the 1966 Tashkent earthquake: a strand of Socialist Realism mixed with Islamic and national ornament. Prefabricated housing blocks and public buildings in Tashkent and Almaty, and Tashkent's metro stations, got a skin of smalt and ceramic mosaic and concrete sun-screen grilles (panjara) that enlarge Central Asian and Islamic pattern to façade scale. Near-abstract geometric and floral pattern carries much of it; figurative panels add flat, stylised musicians, epic lovers, cosmonauts and scientists in turquoise, deep blue, ochre and orange.

Jost; Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism used The sources document no lettering of the style's own, so the genome's all-caps weight (0.3) is a design recommendation, not an observed choice: for graphics, keep words few and set Cyrillic, Uzbek and Kazakh names in plain capitals so that pattern and figure carry the design and Zhurnalnaya rublenaya, or Magazine Grotesque (designed 1940–56 at the Polygraphmash type bureau under Anatoliy Shchukin, released 1947, Latin added 1962), a Soviet geometric sans after Erbar-Grotesk and Metro, for Cyrillic captions and signs

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism, with a counter-accent from Islamic Geometric. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism

#f1ece0 ground · 36%
#13234f ink · 14%
#d79a2b accent · 18%
#d2602b accent · 14%
#a63d2f accent · 10%
#2aa3a8 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f1ece0;
  --ink: #13234f;
  --accent-1: #d79a2b;
  --accent-2: #d2602b;
  --accent-3: #a63d2f;
  --accent-4: #2aa3a8;
  --font-display: "Reem Kufi", cursive;
  --font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition: Qur'anic verses, the names of God and the Prophet and other sacred phrases must not be cropped, distorted, mirrored, used as texture or printed on floors, footwear or throwaway packaging; have any Arabic-script text read and approved by a fluent reader or calligrapher. Abstract geometric pattern is far less sensitive than script, but credit the traditions and makers it comes from.

Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism: This is official Soviet monumental art made in Central Asia under rule from Moscow: treat its motifs as Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Tajik heritage rather than generic 'Oriental' decoration; credit named artists, among them the Jarsky brothers, Ahmet Shaymuradov and the Kazakh artist Moldakhmet Kenbaev; keep Qur'anic and other sacred Arabic inscriptions, and pseudo-Arabic letters, out of reworked tile patterns; and draw new panels instead of copying surviving mosaics. They are attributed works whose makers or heirs may still hold rights; 157 of them have been listed heritage in Uzbekistan since 25 March 2024, while Almaty has no policy to protect its monumental art, and many mosaics there have been painted over, demolished or hidden behind hoardings and advertisements.