Style combination · Contrasts

Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints × 10-gruppen Printed Textiles

Frank fills a long repeat with many small botanical motifs; 10-gruppen uses one plain everyday motif in few flat colours, the cheerful answer to that richness.

From the research on 10-gruppen (Tiogruppen) Printed Textiles

Mix them and make something Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints 10-gruppen Printed Textiles

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints, their arrangement from 10-gruppen Printed Textiles, 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 10-gruppen (Tiogruppen) Printed Textiles

Type from Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints
Colour from 10-gruppen Printed Textiles: Flat fields
Limited spot colours

Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints avoids limited spot colours: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
Form from Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints: Biomorphic curves
Stylised figuration
Composition from 10-gruppen Printed Textiles: All-over field
Repetition & rhythm
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

Pop

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 · 10-gruppen Printed Textiles

The printed fabrics of 10-gruppen, a Stockholm collective of ten textile designers founded in 1970: bright, flat all-over repeats of stripes, checks, dripping drops and simple figurative motifs such as dogs, bananas and Stockholm landmarks, in a few saturated inks on cotton or linen. Against the discreet patterns then usual in Swedish textiles, they made cheap, cheerful pattern for everyday goods, sold by the metre at IKEA and on bags and trays in the group's own shop. Unlike Marimekko's large organic shapes, the repeats are mid-sized, cleanly drawn and often pictorial.

Nunito; 10-gruppen Printed Textiles used No lettering in the repeat and IKEA's capitalised Swedish product names (STRIX/STRAX, PLASK, SOLREGN, RANDIG BANAN, as IKEA Museum writes them), the form in which most buyers met the group's prints; this naming is IKEA's convention, not a choice of the group, and the only lettering tied to the prints in the sources

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from 10-gruppen Printed Textiles, 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 10-gruppen (Tiogruppen) Printed Textiles

#f4f1e8 ground · 36%
#161616 ink · 14%
#f6c800 accent · 18%
#e3a92b accent · 14%
#e8641c accent · 10%
#c8372d accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f4f1e8;
  --ink: #161616;
  --accent-1: #f6c800;
  --accent-2: #e3a92b;
  --accent-3: #e8641c;
  --accent-4: #c8372d;
  --font-display: "Londrina Solid", cursive;
  --font-text: "Nunito", sans-serif;
}

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.

An all-over pattern shows black-haired people in yellow tops and orange trousers sitting in blue chairs with green mugs, interspersed with black cats and orange dome-shaped lamps on a cream background. Bold black lettering near the upper left reads “HEMMA.”

1970–2015 · Northern Europe 10-gruppen (Tiogruppen) Printed Textiles The printed fabrics of 10-gruppen, a Stockholm collective of ten textile designers founded in 1970: bright, flat all-over repeats of stripes, checks, dripping drops and simple figurative motifs such as dogs, bananas and Stockholm landmarks, in a few saturated inks on cotton or linen. Against the discreet patterns then usual in Swedish textiles, they made cheap, cheerful pattern for everyday goods, sold by the metre at IKEA and on bags and trays in the group's own shop. Unlike Marimekko's large organic shapes, the repeats are mid-sized, cleanly drawn and often pictorial.

More combinations

With Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints

With 10-gruppen Printed Textiles

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