Japanese Postwar Modernism × Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Reduce ukiyo-e motifs to flat emblems on a strict grid to get the postwar Japanese blend of tradition and modernism.

From the research on Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Mix them and make something Japanese Postwar Modernism Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Japanese Postwar Modernism, their arrangement from Japanese Postwar Modernism, the finish from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints. 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.

Japanese Postwar Modernism Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Type from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints: Brush & pen calligraphy
Rotated & vertical setting
Colour from Japanese Postwar Modernism: Limited spot colours
Flat fields
Form from Japanese Postwar Modernism: Geometric primitives
Stylised figuration
Composition from Japanese Postwar Modernism: Generous white space
Single focal point
Surface from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints: Carved line
Paper & letterpress bite

The type

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

Display · Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Tide

Shippori Mincho, standing in for Brush-written kana and kanji titles (gyōsho and sōsho hands)

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

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Japanese Postwar Modernism, with a counter-accent from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Japanese Postwar Modernism Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

#f4f1ea ground · 36%
#111111 ink · 14%
#d7261e accent · 18%
#c8a24a accent · 14%
#1d3c78 accent · 10%
#d98c8c accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f4f1ea;
  --ink: #111111;
  --accent-1: #d7261e;
  --accent-2: #c8a24a;
  --accent-3: #1d3c78;
  --accent-4: #d98c8c;
  --font-display: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
  --font-text: "Zen Kaku Gothic New", sans-serif;
}

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.

An enormous hawk with raised wings and extended talons swoops over a rough sea with a small sailboat and rocky islands. Pine-covered cliffs and a Japanese-style building frame the right side, with a mountain, red sun and vertical Japanese lettering in the background.

1670–1900 · East Asia Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints Mass-produced Edo-period woodblock prints of actors, courtesans, legends and landscapes, designed by an artist, cut and printed by specialist craftsmen and sold cheaply by commercial publishers. Flat colour blocks inside a carved keyline, bold cropping, high or oblique viewpoints and diagonal compositions, with titles in small cartouches, later handed Europe a new model for the poster.

More combinations

With Japanese Postwar Modernism

All 26 combinations with Japanese Postwar Modernism

With Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

All 15 combinations with Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Every style combination