Stylogeny combining Japanese Postwar Modernism × Muji No-Brand Design

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Style combination · Pairs well

Japanese Postwar Modernism × Muji No-Brand Design

Take its single focal point and flat colour, then remove the emblem and the poster drama for a quieter consumer object.

From the research on Muji No-Brand Design (Mujirushi Ryohin)

Mix them and make something Japanese Postwar Modernism Muji No-Brand Design

FormJapanese Postwar × Muji No-Brand Design
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Japanese Postwar Modernism, their arrangement from Muji No-Brand Design, the finish from Muji No-Brand Design. 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.

Japanese Postwar Modernism Muji No-Brand Design (Mujirushi Ryohin)

Type from Japanese Postwar Modernism
Colour from Japanese Postwar Modernism
Form from Japanese Postwar Modernism
Composition from Muji No-Brand Design
Surface from Muji No-Brand Design

02

The type

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

Display · Japanese Postwar Modernism

Form

Zen Kaku Gothic New, standing in for Gothic (kaku gothic Japanese sans)

Text · Japanese Postwar Modernism

Building on the New Typography that Hiromu Hara and the Nippon Kobo circle had absorbed in the 1930s, Japan's postwar graphic designers fused the grid, sans-serif and objective photography of European modernism with indigenous traditions of family crests (kamon), asymmetry and charged emptiness (ma). From the Graphic '55 exhibition and the Nippon Design Center to Yusaku Kamekura's Tokyo 1964 Olympic posters, it produced bold emblematic symbols, luminous flat colour fields and photography of startling precision.

Zen Kaku Gothic New; Japanese Postwar Modernism used Gothic and Mincho

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Japanese Postwar Modernism, with a counter-accent from Muji No-Brand Design. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Japanese Postwar Modernism Muji No-Brand Design (Mujirushi Ryohin)

  • #f4f1ea ground · 36%
  • #111111 ink · 14%
  • #d7261e accent · 18%
  • #c8a24a accent · 14%
  • #c9a97c accent · 10%
  • #1d3c78 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f4f1ea;
  --ink: #111111;
  --accent-1: #d7261e;
  --accent-2: #c8a24a;
  --accent-3: #c9a97c;
  --accent-4: #1d3c78;
  --font-display: "Zen Kaku Gothic New", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Zen Kaku Gothic New", sans-serif;
}

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The two styles

A large red sun sits above and behind a black triangular mountain with a gold tip on an off-white background. Bold black characters reading “太陽” appear in the upper-left corner. 1950–1990 · East Asia Japanese Postwar Modernism Building on the New Typography that Hiromu Hara and the Nippon Kobo circle had absorbed in the 1930s, Japan's postwar graphic designers fused the grid, sans-serif and objective photography of European modernism with indigenous traditions of family crests (kamon), asymmetry and charged emptiness (ma). From the Graphic '55 exhibition and the Nippon Design Center to Yusaku Kamekura's Tokyo 1964 Olympic posters, it produced bold emblematic symbols, luminous flat colour fields and photography of startling precision. A large beige, speckled stoneware mug with a handle on the right sits against an off-white background. Bold black text in the upper left reads “Daily Mug,” with the material, capacity and price beneath. 1980–present · East Asia, Global / networked Muji No-Brand Design (Mujirushi Ryohin) A house style that sells goods by withholding branding: clear cellophane and plain brown paper, plain labels stating the item and its price, and products centred in wide margins. Begun in Tokyo in 1980 under Ikko Tanaka, it makes calm a design method rather than a mood; Kenya Hara, art director since 2001, later articulated this through his idea of emptiness in his writing.

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More combinations

With Japanese Postwar Modernism

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With Muji No-Brand Design

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