Style combination · Pairs well

Kōwhaiwhai × Op Art Graphics

Kōwhaiwhai figure-ground reversal reads as optical pattern, but Gordon Walters' koru paintings show the appropriation risk, so work with Māori artists.

From the research on Kōwhaiwhai & Toi Māori Design

Mix them and make something Kōwhaiwhai Op Art Graphics

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Kōwhaiwhai, their arrangement from Kōwhaiwhai, the finish from Kōwhaiwhai. 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.

Kōwhaiwhai & Toi Māori Design Op Art Graphics

Type from Op Art Graphics: Geometric sans
Ornamented display
Colour from Op Art Graphics: Monochrome
Complementary clash
Form from Kōwhaiwhai: Biomorphic curves
Folk & sacred symbols
Composition from Kōwhaiwhai: Central symmetry
Repetition & rhythm
Surface from Kōwhaiwhai: Carved line
Flat

The type

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

Display · Op Art Graphics

Ours

Monoton, standing in for Mexico 68 multiline lettering (Lance Wyman)

Text · Kōwhaiwhai

Toi Māori, the visual arts of the tangata whenua of Aotearoa, of which kōwhaiwhai, the painted scroll patterns of paddles and meeting-house rafters, is the most graphic strand. Patterns are built from the koru (unfurling frond) and crescent forms in red ochre (kōkōwai), black and white, balancing positive and negative shapes in long mirrored bands, alongside carving (whakairo), tukutuku lattice panels and woven tāniko.

Archivo; Kōwhaiwhai used Whakarare and Painted and carved lettering in 19th-century meeting houses

The colours

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

Kōwhaiwhai & Toi Māori Design Op Art Graphics

#ffffff ground · 36%
#0a0a0a ink · 14%
#e3001b accent · 18%
#c46b2b accent · 14%
#0050b5 accent · 10%
#a3322a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ffffff;
  --ink: #0a0a0a;
  --accent-1: #e3001b;
  --accent-2: #c46b2b;
  --accent-3: #0050b5;
  --accent-4: #a3322a;
  --font-display: "Monoton", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Archivo", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Kōwhaiwhai & Toi Māori Design: Toi Māori is taonga: kōwhaiwhai patterns can belong to particular iwi and houses and carry whakapapa, and tā moko is personal and especially restricted. Work with Māori designers and iwi under tikanga, credit them, and do not graft koru onto letters or products as generic 'tribal' decoration.

The two styles

1500–present · Oceania Kōwhaiwhai & Toi Māori Design Toi Māori, the visual arts of the tangata whenua of Aotearoa, of which kōwhaiwhai, the painted scroll patterns of paddles and meeting-house rafters, is the most graphic strand. Patterns are built from the koru (unfurling frond) and crescent forms in red ochre (kōkōwai), black and white, balancing positive and negative shapes in long mirrored bands, alongside carving (whakairo), tukutuku lattice panels and woven tāniko.

Alternating red and white curved stripes fill the poster, swelling and pinching into a repeating optical illusion of bulges and tunnels. The word “PULSE” appears in tall, multiline red lettering near the center.

1960–1975 · Global / networked Op Art Graphics A 1960s style that turned perceptual research into graphic effect: precisely drawn lines, checks, concentric rings and modular grids, usually black and white or complementaries of equal value, that seem to vibrate, swell or move. Rooted in Bauhaus form teaching through Vasarely and Albers and popularised by MoMA's 1965 'The Responsive Eye', it spread quickly into posters, record sleeves, fashion textiles and identities such as Mexico 68.