Style combination · Contrasts

Kawaii Design × Moomin Graphics

Its round, white characters sit near kawaii fancy goods, but they keep a hatched, melancholy world around them that kawaii fancy goods leave out.

From the research on Moomin Graphics (Tove Jansson's Pen-Drawn World and its Licensed Afterlife)

Mix them and make something Kawaii Design Moomin Graphics

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Kawaii Design, their arrangement from Moomin Graphics, the finish from Moomin Graphics. 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.

Kawaii Design Moomin Graphics (Tove Jansson's Pen-Drawn World and its Licensed Afterlife)

Type from Kawaii Design: Rounded sans
Hand-lettering
Colour from Kawaii Design: Pastel
Flat fields
Form from Kawaii Design: Rounded & pill
Stylised figuration
Composition from Moomin Graphics: Sequential narrative
Framed panels
Surface from Moomin Graphics

The type

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

Display · Kawaii Design

Wow

Zen Maru Gothic, standing in for Maru-ji (rounded teenage handwriting, 1970s)

Text · Moomin Graphics

The pen-and-ink world of Tove Jansson's Moomin books (1945-1977) and newspaper strip (1947-1975): round, white, snouted trolls drawn in a sure, fine black line, small against hatched forests, seas and night skies, in strips of framed panels with hand-lettered balloons. Her drawings are small and mostly black ink on white paper, with a second, full-colour gouache mode in three picture books. Since 1990 Arabia's mugs and other licensed goods adapt single drawings onto white grounds with one or two soft flat colours, turning one artist's hand into a living graphic system.

Comic Neue; Moomin Graphics used Hand-lettering in speech balloons and captions, the newspaper comic-strip tradition and Old-style book serif for the running text of the novels, the classic book-typography tradition

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Kawaii Design, with a counter-accent from Moomin Graphics. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Kawaii Design Moomin Graphics (Tove Jansson's Pen-Drawn World and its Licensed Afterlife)

#fff4a3 ground · 36%
#141414 ink · 14%
#e60033 accent · 18%
#d2483a accent · 14%
#a8d8ff accent · 10%
#e6c26a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #fff4a3;
  --ink: #141414;
  --accent-1: #e60033;
  --accent-2: #d2483a;
  --accent-3: #a8d8ff;
  --accent-4: #e6c26a;
  --font-display: "Zen Maru Gothic", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Comic Neue", cursive;
}

Use it with care

Moomin Graphics (Tove Jansson's Pen-Drawn World and its Licensed Afterlife): The Moomin characters, names and drawings are protected and licensed by the Jansson family's company; use the drawing approach (fine ink line, round figures, hatched landscape, one or two soft colours) rather than copying the characters or implying an official Moomin product.

The two styles

A pastel homepage titled “Cloudy Days” features smiling clouds, a rabbit, a cat, and a rainbow surrounded by hearts, stars, and colorful squiggles. A rounded navigation bar sits above the illustration, with four illustrated pastel tiles across the bottom.

1970–present · East Asia Kawaii Design Japan's culture of cuteness, which grew from 1970s teenage rounded handwriting and shōjo fancy goods into a global design language through Sanrio, character merchandise and emoji. Its decisions are simple and consistent: rounded forms, oversized heads and minimal faces, pastel or candy colour in flat fields, scattered hearts and sparkles, and friendly rounded type. 1945–present · Northern Europe, Global / networked Moomin Graphics (Tove Jansson's Pen-Drawn World and its Licensed Afterlife) The pen-and-ink world of Tove Jansson's Moomin books (1945-1977) and newspaper strip (1947-1975): round, white, snouted trolls drawn in a sure, fine black line, small against hatched forests, seas and night skies, in strips of framed panels with hand-lettered balloons. Her drawings are small and mostly black ink on white paper, with a second, full-colour gouache mode in three picture books. Since 1990 Arabia's mugs and other licensed goods adapt single drawings onto white grounds with one or two soft flat colours, turning one artist's hand into a living graphic system.