Style combination · Pairs well

Isotype Pictorial Statistics × Wordless Flat-Pack Assembly Instructions

Both explain without words; add Isotype's counted pictograms for a parts list and keep the outline drawing for the steps.

From the research on Wordless Flat-Pack Assembly Instructions

Mix them and make something Isotype Pictorial Statistics Wordless Flat-Pack Assembly Instructions

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Isotype Pictorial Statistics, their arrangement from Wordless Flat-Pack Assembly Instructions, the finish from Isotype Pictorial Statistics. 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.

Isotype Pictorial Statistics Wordless Flat-Pack Assembly Instructions

Type from Wordless Flat-Pack Assembly Instructions
Colour from Isotype Pictorial Statistics: Flat fields
Limited spot colours
Form from Isotype Pictorial Statistics: Pictogram
Stylised figuration
Composition from Wordless Flat-Pack Assembly Instructions: Isolated object
Sequential narrative
Surface from Isotype Pictorial Statistics: Flat

The type

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

Display · Wordless Flat-Pack Assembly Instructions

Order

Space Mono, standing in for Almost no type: what there is (the product name on the cover, the booklet code such as AA-54679-2, step numbers and part article numbers such as 100001) is set as plain sans-serif figures and capitals

Text · Isotype Pictorial Statistics

A method of visual education developed by Otto Neurath, Marie Neurath (Reidemeister) and Gerd Arntz in Red Vienna from 1925, which turns statistics into rows of identical pictograms where a greater quantity is shown by more signs, never by bigger ones. Continued in The Hague and Oxford until 1971, its standardised symbols, flat colours and sans-serif captions laid the foundations of modern information graphics and pictogram systems.

Jost; Isotype Pictorial Statistics used Futura and Gerd Arntz's linocut pictogram set (c. 4,000 signs), used like a fount of picture-type

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Isotype Pictorial Statistics, with a counter-accent from Wordless Flat-Pack Assembly Instructions. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Isotype Pictorial Statistics Wordless Flat-Pack Assembly Instructions

#f2ecdf ground · 36%
#1a1a1a ink · 14%
#c8372d accent · 18%
#6e6e6e accent · 14%
#2c5aa0 accent · 10%
#a8a8a8 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f2ecdf;
  --ink: #1a1a1a;
  --accent-1: #c8372d;
  --accent-2: #6e6e6e;
  --accent-3: #2c5aa0;
  --accent-4: #a8a8a8;
  --font-display: "Space Mono", monospace;
  --font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Wordless Flat-Pack Assembly Instructions: IKEA’s name, logo and assembly figure belong to IKEA: work in the manner (black line on white, one simple step per picture, no words) without using them, without copying a real IKEA booklet or product, and without presenting the result as IKEA’s or implying a link with IKEA.