Style combination · Contrasts

Kamon × Northwest Coast Formline Design

Both are hereditary crest systems, but formline fills a red-and-black field with split, swelling creatures while a mon is a tiny symmetric silhouette in emptiness; compare them to decide between abundance and reduction.

From the research on Kamon (Japanese Family Crests)

Mix them and make something Kamon Northwest Coast Formline Design

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Kamon, their arrangement from Kamon, the finish from Northwest Coast Formline Design. 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.

Kamon (Japanese Family Crests) Northwest Coast Formline Design

Type from Kamon
Colour from Northwest Coast Formline Design: Limited spot colours
Flat fields
Form from Kamon: Pictogram
Emblems & badges
Composition from Kamon: Radial & concentric
Central symmetry
Surface from Northwest Coast Formline Design: Carved line
Flat

The type

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

Display · Kamon

Notice

Shippori Mincho, standing in for Brush-written kaisho (regular-script) kanji for shop names and family names on curtains and lanterns

Text · Northwest Coast Formline Design

The two-dimensional design system of the northern Northwest Coast nations, painted, carved and woven onto boxes, house fronts, robes and hats, and printed as serigraphs since the 1960s. A continuous black primary formline that swells and tapers joins ovoids, U-forms and S-forms into hereditary crest beings, with red secondary lines and blue-green tertiary areas. The figure is split, splayed and compressed until it fills its field.

Archivo; Northwest Coast Formline Design used Hand-lettered captions and titling in Yahgulanaas's Haida Manga and Latin faces with full Lingít and X̱aad Kíl orthographic support (x̱, g̱, ḵ), e.g. Noto Sans, for accompanying text

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Northwest Coast Formline Design, with a counter-accent from Kamon. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Kamon (Japanese Family Crests) Northwest Coast Formline Design

#efe9dd ground · 36%
#141414 ink · 14%
#a8261d accent · 18%
#b38f3d accent · 14%
#3b7a74 accent · 10%
#1d2b47 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #efe9dd;
  --ink: #141414;
  --accent-1: #a8261d;
  --accent-2: #b38f3d;
  --accent-3: #3b7a74;
  --accent-4: #1d2b47;
  --font-display: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
  --font-text: "Archivo", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Kamon (Japanese Family Crests): Mon are inherited marks of particular families, shrines, temples and institutions. Only the imperial chrysanthemum is named in Japanese law: the Trademark Act (art. 4(1)(i)) bars registering it or anything like it. The government's paulownia, though the official emblem of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, was never given the same legal restrictions, while famous crests registered as trademarks, such as Mitsubishi's three diamonds, are protected as marks. Do not use the chrysanthemum, the government paulownia, or any identifiable family's, shrine's or temple's crest as decoration or as a brand. Imperial emblems can also recall Japan's wartime empire for audiences in Korea and China. The manji (卍), a standard crest (the Hachisuka clan; the temple crest of Sensō-ji), is read in the West as the Nazi swastika: avoid it outside a Japanese context that explains it. Draw new crests by the tradition's rules instead of borrowing real ones, and commission or credit working monsho uwaeshi, who still draw and paint crests by hand.

Northwest Coast Formline Design: Formline images are hereditary crests: the raven, eagle, killer whale, bear, beaver and other beings belong to particular clans, houses and lineages, their display is tied to rights validated at potlatches and feasts, and some designs and stories are restricted. The tradition belongs to the Haida, Tlingit, Tsimshian and Heiltsuk nations, not to a generic 'Pacific Northwest' style. Commission or license work from artists of those nations, credit them by name and nation, and never redraw crests or assemble pseudo-formline from ovoids and U-forms.

The two styles

A cream circular floral emblem sits on a black background, with six pointed leaves and six round-tipped stems arranged around a central disc. Below it, widely spaced serif capitals spell “HARMONY.”

c. 1100–present · East Asia Kamon (Japanese Family Crests) Japan's family crests: small one-colour emblems that reduce a plant, animal, tool or pattern to a flat silhouette, mirrored or repeated around a centre, often ringed and drawn with compass and brush. Begun on Heian court carriages and spread to samurai and all of society, mon are usually inherited, granted or freely chosen rather than designed, varied in small codified ways for branch families, and placed in fixed positions on formal kimono, shop curtains, lacquer and banners. Covers the formal crest (jōmon), not the decorative coloured kaga-mon or pictorial date-mon and share-mon. 1700–present · North America Northwest Coast Formline Design The two-dimensional design system of the northern Northwest Coast nations, painted, carved and woven onto boxes, house fronts, robes and hats, and printed as serigraphs since the 1960s. A continuous black primary formline that swells and tapers joins ovoids, U-forms and S-forms into hereditary crest beings, with red secondary lines and blue-green tertiary areas. The figure is split, splayed and compressed until it fills its field.

More combinations

With Kamon

All 19 combinations with Kamon

With Northwest Coast Formline Design

All 11 combinations with Northwest Coast Formline Design

Every style combination