Stylogeny combining Hebrew Poster Lettering × Plakatstil

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Style combination · Contrasts

Hebrew Poster Lettering × Plakatstil

Its parent by training: the Shamir brothers studied at the applied-arts school in Berlin-Charlottenburg and Krausz took night classes at the Reimann school in Berlin, and their juice and cigarette posters are object posters. They add right-to-left Hebrew lettering, airbrushed modelling and, after 1948, the emblems of a state.

From the research on Hebrew Poster Lettering & Early Israeli State Design

Mix them and make something Hebrew Poster Lettering Plakatstil

AtlasHebrew Poster × Plakatstil1934 · 1905
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Hebrew Poster Lettering, their arrangement from Plakatstil, the finish from Hebrew Poster Lettering. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

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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.

Hebrew Poster Lettering & Early Israeli State Design Plakatstil / Sachplakat

Type from Hebrew Poster Lettering
Colour from Plakatstil
Form from Hebrew Poster Lettering
Composition from Plakatstil
Surface from Hebrew Poster Lettering

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The type

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

Display · Hebrew Poster Lettering

Atlas

Reem Kufi; Hebrew Poster Lettering used Hand-drawn Hebrew block letters, heavy and square, drawn for each poster and label; Franz Krausz kept one consistent letter style, while the Shamir brothers fitted the lettering to each subject and Brush-written and cursive Hebrew lettering for slogans

Text · Plakatstil

The German 'object poster' launched by Lucian Bernhard's Priester match poster and printed by Berlin's Hollerbaum & Schmidt. It strips the advertisement to a single product rendered in flat, saturated colour and the brand name in bold hand-drawn letters on a plain ground, so the message registers instantly from a passing tram or across the street.

Oswald; Plakatstil used Lucian Bernhard's hand-drawn block lettering and Block

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The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Plakatstil, with a counter-accent from Hebrew Poster Lettering. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Hebrew Poster Lettering & Early Israeli State Design Plakatstil / Sachplakat

  • #151515 ground · 36%
  • #efe5cf ink · 14%
  • #d2382b accent · 18%
  • #0038b8 accent · 14%
  • #e3b23c accent · 10%
  • #24418f accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #151515;
  --ink: #efe5cf;
  --accent-1: #d2382b;
  --accent-2: #0038b8;
  --accent-3: #e3b23c;
  --accent-4: #24418f;
  --font-display: "Reem Kufi", cursive;
  --font-text: "Oswald", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Hebrew Poster Lettering & Early Israeli State Design: This is the graphic language of the Zionist movement and the new Israeli state in a land shared with Palestinian Arabs: its pioneer, settlement and tourism imagery, 'Visit Palestine' (1936) among it, served the project of Jewish immigration and statehood in the years that led to the displacement of Palestinians in 1948, the Nakba, so present it as political history rather than a neutral regional or 'Holy Land' look, and think twice before reusing it to brand places whose ownership is contested. 'Visit Palestine' is built around the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim shrine, and since David Tartakover reissued it with Krausz's permission in 1995 it has hung in Palestinian homes, shops and Palestinian Authority offices and been reworked by Palestinian artists such as Amer Shomali (2009): it now belongs to two conflicting national memories, so do not use it, or pastiches of it, as a neutral Israeli or Palestinian brand image. Its state symbols are still in force: Israel's Flag and Emblem Law of 1949 (since 2004 the Flag, Emblem and National Anthem Law) requires a permit from the Interior Ministry to produce or use the emblem, so do not adapt it or pass new work off as official. The menorah, the Shema and Torah-scroll calligraphy are also Jewish sacred forms: have any Hebrew checked by a fluent reader, and do not distort scripture or use the names of God as decoration.

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The two styles

A muscular farm worker in a white rolled-sleeve shirt and olive trousers grips a hoe in red soil, looking upward beside large orange Hebrew lettering. Behind him are cultivated fields, trees, pale buildings and a water tower beneath a large cream sun, with a circular wheat-and-leaves emblem at the lower right. 1934–1974 · Middle East & North Africa Hebrew Poster Lettering & Early Israeli State Design The commercial and state graphics of the Jewish community in Mandate Palestine and early Israel, made in Tel Aviv from 1934 by designers who had trained in Berlin and Vienna: Franz Krausz, Otte Wallish and the Shamir brothers. Posters for juice, cigarettes, tourism and national campaigns centre one heroic figure, product or word, painted in gouache or airbrush under hand-drawn Hebrew block letters. After 1948 the same studios drew the state emblem, stamps, banknotes and medals, joining modernist reduction to the menorah, the olive branch and ancient coins. A tall, slender red-orange dog stands facing right against a black background, with angular black cutouts defining its features and limbs. Large cream capital letters spell “VELOX” beneath its paws. 1905–1920 · Central Europe Plakatstil / Sachplakat The German 'object poster' launched by Lucian Bernhard's Priester match poster and printed by Berlin's Hollerbaum & Schmidt. It strips the advertisement to a single product rendered in flat, saturated colour and the brand name in bold hand-drawn letters on a plain ground, so the message registers instantly from a passing tram or across the street.

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More combinations

With Hebrew Poster Lettering

With Plakatstil

All 12 combinations with Plakatstil

Every style combination