Style combination · Pairs well

Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints × Taiwan Floral Cloth

Another dense, many-coloured floral cloth; Taiwan huabu is bolder, flatter and more nostalgic, Frank finer in line and more botanical.

From the research on Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints

Mix them and make something Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints Taiwan Floral Cloth

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Taiwan Floral Cloth, their arrangement from Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints, the finish from Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical 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.

Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints Taiwan Floral Cloth (Huabu)

Type from Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints
Colour from Taiwan Floral Cloth: Full polychrome
Complementary clash
Form from Taiwan Floral Cloth: Biomorphic curves
Floral & vegetal
Composition from Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints: All-over field
Horror vacui
Surface from Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints: Flat

The type

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

Display · Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints

Kin

Londrina Solid; Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints used Lettering drawn inside the repeat, such as the grey banners naming 'MANHATTAN' that run through the Manhattan print and The printed selvedge mark naming pattern, designer and maker, such as 'La Plata Komp. Av Josef Frank Svenskt Tenn Stockholm'

Text · Taiwan Floral Cloth

Cheap printed cotton covered edge to edge in large, full-blown peonies with lotuses, phoenixes, dragons, mandarin ducks, small florets and auspicious emblems on saturated vermilion, bright pink or sky-blue grounds. Mass-produced from the 1950s–60s, by Far Eastern Textile among others, for quilts, curtains, wrapping cloths and clothing, it was dismissed as gaudy after the 1970s, taken up by designers and artists such as Michael Lin in the 1980s and 1990s, and revived from the 2000s as a Hakka and Taiwanese emblem on interiors, festivals and cultural-creative goods.

Shippori Mincho; Taiwan Floral Cloth used None on the cloth itself; when words accompany it, kaishu (regular brush script) for auspicious words and titles on a plain panel beside the pattern and Traditional Chinese Songti / Mingti (Ming-style) text type for labels, tags and book covers set against the cloth

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Taiwan Floral Cloth, with a counter-accent from Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints Taiwan Floral Cloth (Huabu)

#f7f2e8 ground · 36%
#8e1b3a ink · 14%
#d42a20 accent · 18%
#e3a92b accent · 14%
#e8468c accent · 10%
#7bbfe6 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f7f2e8;
  --ink: #8e1b3a;
  --accent-1: #d42a20;
  --accent-2: #e3a92b;
  --accent-3: #e8468c;
  --accent-4: #7bbfe6;
  --font-display: "Londrina Solid", cursive;
  --font-text: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
}

Use it with care

Taiwan Floral Cloth (Huabu): The cloth is shared Taiwanese popular culture, but its names and meanings are contested: 'Hakka floral cloth' is the most common label in Taiwan though Minnan, Indigenous and mainlander households all used it, so do not present it as exclusively Hakka, nor as generic 'Chinese' pattern. Northeast China has a red-and-green peony quilt cotton of its own (东北大花), revived in Harbin's 2023–24 tourist boom; describe the Taiwanese cloth by its own Japanese-era roots, Taiwanese mills and markets rather than treating the two as one. Recent prints also borrow motifs from Taiwan's Indigenous peoples, which belong to those communities and should not be reused without their involvement. Many current patterns are the protected designs of mills and designers, and Michael Lin's paintings are authored works, so work in the manner rather than copying a specific print.

The two styles

A cream-ground illustrated poster is densely filled with winding green foliage, colorful flowers, lemons, berries, birds, spotted animals, and people relaxing in summer clothes. Red lettering reading “Sunny Days” appears near the upper right, above a small blue table with a pitcher and fruit beside a red chair.

1934–present · Northern Europe Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints The linens Josef Frank drew for Svenskt Tenn, which still prints them: invented trees, flowers, fruit and birds, even a map of Manhattan, packed edge to edge in long repeats and many clear colours, mostly on white or natural linen. The plants are outlined, stylised but recognisable, loose and asymmetric. Frank meant different patterns to be mixed in one room, against the cold purity of functionalism; his 1958 essay "Accidentism" later named the idea: rooms should look as if they had come about by chance. Unlike Marimekko's single enlarged motif, Frank keeps many small motifs and colours.

A dense floral illustration fills a red-orange background with large pink and red peonies, blue lotus-like flowers, green leaves, small blossoms, and blue-and-white birds in flight. Cream lettering near the upper right reads “Good Days.”

1950–present · East Asia Taiwan Floral Cloth (Huabu) Cheap printed cotton covered edge to edge in large, full-blown peonies with lotuses, phoenixes, dragons, mandarin ducks, small florets and auspicious emblems on saturated vermilion, bright pink or sky-blue grounds. Mass-produced from the 1950s–60s, by Far Eastern Textile among others, for quilts, curtains, wrapping cloths and clothing, it was dismissed as gaudy after the 1970s, taken up by designers and artists such as Michael Lin in the 1980s and 1990s, and revived from the 2000s as a Hakka and Taiwanese emblem on interiors, festivals and cultural-creative goods.

More combinations

With Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints

With Taiwan Floral Cloth

Every style combination