Style combination · Contrasts

Islamic Geometric × Thai Yantra Diagrams

Both make sacred script structural, but Islamic pattern repeats edge to edge without end while a yantra closes in on one centre, often inside nested text borders.

From the research on Thai Yantra (Yant) Diagrams

Mix them and make something Islamic Geometric Thai Yantra Diagrams

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Islamic Geometric, their arrangement from Islamic Geometric, the finish from Thai Yantra Diagrams. 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 Thai Yantra (Yant) Diagrams

Type from Islamic Geometric: Brush & pen calligraphy
Type as image
Colour from Thai Yantra Diagrams: Monochrome
Limited spot colours
Form from Islamic Geometric: Non-representational
Geometric tessellation
Composition from Islamic Geometric: All-over field
Central symmetry
Surface from Thai Yantra Diagrams: Carved line
Flat

The type

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

Display · Islamic Geometric

Halo

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

Text · Thai Yantra Diagrams

Thai protective diagrams in which Pali formulae, written in Khom, a sacred script derived from Khmer, are packed into squares, circles, triangles, spires and the outlines of Buddhas, monks and tigers, often framed by lines of script. Built from formulae attested in Khom inscriptions since the 15th century and drawn in manuals that survive from the late Ayutthaya period, they are printed in one ink on cheap cloth as pha yant and hung over doors, and tattooed by monks and ajarn as sak yant, such as the nine-spired Gao Yord of Wat Bang Phra.

EB Garamond; Thai Yantra Diagrams used Khom Thai (akson khom), the Khmer-derived script used for Pali formulae and heart syllables and Mul (round) Khmer script in Cambodian-lineage yantras, distinguishable from Khom only by small variants

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Thai Yantra Diagrams, with a counter-accent from Islamic Geometric. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition Thai Yantra (Yant) Diagrams

#f2ede1 ground · 36%
#1d1b18 ink · 14%
#d9b44a accent · 18%
#b3282d accent · 14%
#2f4f8f accent · 10%
#2a9d9b accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f2ede1;
  --ink: #1d1b18;
  --accent-1: #d9b44a;
  --accent-2: #b3282d;
  --accent-3: #2f4f8f;
  --accent-4: #2a9d9b;
  --font-display: "Reem Kufi", cursive;
  --font-text: "EB Garamond", 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.

Thai Yantra (Yant) Diagrams: Yantras are consecrated Buddhist and Brahmanic protective diagrams in living use: their Khom formulae are incantations, sak yant are given by monks and ajarn within master–disciple lineages under precepts the wearer must keep, and pha yant are blessed objects hung high over doors. Do not use real or imitation yantras, Khom letters or Buddha images as texture, logos, fashion prints or tattoos without a master, do not place them low (on floors, footwear, seats) or crop and mirror them, do not invent pseudo-Khom, and work with Thai practitioners and readers of Khom rather than tracing designs from temples or tattoo photographs. Image models cannot write Khom and will invent letters: in generated images leave the cells blank or set legible secular Thai, and never present the result as a real or working yantra.

The two styles

An all-over geometric pattern combines blue star-shaped rosettes, turquoise leafy flourishes, and small rust-red diamonds on a near-black ground. Cream and gold interlacing bands connect and outline the repeating motifs.

c. 690–present · Middle East & North Africa, South Asia, Southern Europe Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition A visual system shared across the Islamic world in which proportioned calligraphy, compass-and-straightedge geometry and the vegetal arabesque carry meaning and beauty in place of figurative imagery. Star-and-polygon tilings repeat across whole surfaces as if continuing beyond the frame, while Kufic, Thuluth and Naskh inscriptions give hierarchy to buildings, manuscripts and objects. 1700–present · Southeast Asia Thai Yantra (Yant) Diagrams Thai protective diagrams in which Pali formulae, written in Khom, a sacred script derived from Khmer, are packed into squares, circles, triangles, spires and the outlines of Buddhas, monks and tigers, often framed by lines of script. Built from formulae attested in Khom inscriptions since the 15th century and drawn in manuals that survive from the late Ayutthaya period, they are printed in one ink on cheap cloth as pha yant and hung over doors, and tattooed by monks and ajarn as sak yant, such as the nine-spired Gao Yord of Wat Bang Phra.