Style combination · Contrasts

Hebrew Poster Lettering × Early Turkish Republican Graphic Design

Two new states in the region built their image in hand-lettered posters and state paper in the same decades; Turkey drew its letters in the new Latin alphabet, while these designers drew Hebrew letters for a newly revived spoken language.

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

Mix them and make something Hebrew Poster Lettering Early Turkish Republican Graphic Design

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Hebrew Poster Lettering, their arrangement from Hebrew Poster Lettering, the finish from Hebrew Poster Lettering. 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.

Hebrew Poster Lettering & Early Israeli State Design Early Turkish Republican Graphic Design

Type from Early Turkish Republican Graphic Design: Hand-lettering
All caps
Colour from Early Turkish Republican Graphic Design: Limited spot colours
Full polychrome
Form from Hebrew Poster Lettering: Emblems & badges
Stylised figuration
Composition from Hebrew Poster Lettering: Single focal point
Isolated object
Surface from Hebrew Poster Lettering: Painterly brushwork
Flat

The type

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

Display · Early Turkish Republican Graphic Design

Public

Bungee Shade, standing in for Shaded and extruded display letters and giant numerals (Milli Piyango '7', İş Bankası '12', Köy Halk Kıraatı)

Text · Hebrew Poster Lettering

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.

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

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Early Turkish Republican Graphic Design, 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 Early Turkish Republican Graphic Design

#f0e7d2 ground · 36%
#1b1b1b ink · 14%
#cf1f2e accent · 18%
#0038b8 accent · 14%
#c89b3c accent · 10%
#2c5a7a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f0e7d2;
  --ink: #1b1b1b;
  --accent-1: #cf1f2e;
  --accent-2: #0038b8;
  --accent-3: #c89b3c;
  --accent-4: #2c5a7a;
  --font-display: "Bungee Shade", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Reem Kufi", cursive;
}

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.

Early Turkish Republican Graphic Design: Atatürk's likeness, the Turkish flag and the star and crescent are living national symbols, and Turkey's Law No. 5816 (1951) criminalises insulting Atatürk's memory, so do not caricature, distort or trivialise them when borrowing this style. Much of this imagery was produced for a one-party state and its campaigns, and Kemalist iconography (the unveiled "modern" woman, the six arrows, Atatürk portraits) is still politically charged in Turkey, read differently by secularists, religious conservatives and minorities whom the nation-building imagery left out. Do not present the regime's modernising narrative as neutral, and do not reuse party emblems as decoration.