Style combination · Contrasts
Kōwhaiwhai × International Typographic Style
A rectilinear grid and neutral sans throw mirrored koru bands into relief, which suits bilingual institutional work in Aotearoa.
Mix them and make something Kōwhaiwhai International Typographic Style
01
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 International Typographic Style
- Type from International Typographic Style
- Colour from International Typographic Style
- Form from Kōwhaiwhai
- Composition from Kōwhaiwhai
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International Typographic Style avoids central symmetry: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
- Surface from Kōwhaiwhai
02
The type
Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.
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
03
The colours
The ground and leading colours come from International Typographic Style, with a counter-accent from Kōwhaiwhai. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.
Kōwhaiwhai & Toi Māori Design International Typographic Style
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#f2f0e9ground · 36% -
#111111ink · 14% -
#e1251baccent · 18% -
#c46b2baccent · 14% -
#1f4e9caccent · 10% -
#a3322aaccent · 8%
As CSS
:root {
--ground: #f2f0e9;
--ink: #111111;
--accent-1: #e1251b;
--accent-2: #c46b2b;
--accent-3: #1f4e9c;
--accent-4: #a3322a;
--font-display: "Inter Tight", 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.
04
The two styles
05
More combinations
With Kōwhaiwhai
- Art Nouveau Pairs well · Both build on the living, curling stem; compare their curves to find a rhythm that is organic without being florid.
- Northwest Coast Formline Design Contrasts · Abstract koru bands and figurative formline crests are distinct Indigenous systems, not one 'tribal' look; study the difference and never blend them.
- Pacific Barkcloth (Tapa) Design Contrasts · Curvilinear kōwhaiwhai and ruled, gridded Polynesian barkcloth belong to different peoples and grammars; keep them separate and credit each source.
- Op Art Graphics Pairs well · Kōwhaiwhai figure-ground reversal reads as optical pattern, but Gordon Walters' koru paintings show the appropriation risk, so work with Māori artists.
- Uli & Nsibidi Line and Sign Tradition Contrasts · Both build from curving line and balance positive against negative space, but kōwhaiwhai mirrors koru in continuous bands along a rafter, while uli scatters single motifs asymmetrically over open skin, wall or paper.
- Torres Strait Islander Linocut Contrasts · Another Oceanian pattern tradition, but kōwhaiwhai paints symmetrical koru scrolls in red, black and white along rafters, while Torres Strait linocut carves hatching around narrative figures; never treat Māori and Torres Strait design as one 'Pacific' style.
- Tiki Pop (Polynesian Pop) Contrasts · Polynesian Pop folded Māori carving into one generic 'Tiki'; Toi Māori is taonga tied to particular iwi, so keep it out of tiki pastiche and work with Māori designers when the subject is Aotearoa.
With International Typographic Style
- Art Nouveau Contrasts · Ornamental curves against an orthogonal grid make a strong deliberate tension.
- Brutalist Web Design Pairs well · Strip the grid to raw HTML defaults to get a rawer, contemporary take on Swiss honesty.
- Psychedelic Poster Contrasts · Its exact opposite on legibility; borrow one swirling element to break a too-cold Swiss layout.
- Japanese Postwar Modernism Pairs well · Add Japanese restraint and emblematic colour fields to the grid for warmth without losing order.
- American Traditional Tattoo Flash Contrasts · Rational grid and sans-serif against sentimental, hand-lettered emblems: one flash motif on a Swiss layout makes a sharp contrast.
- Graffiti & Hip-Hop Graphics Contrasts · Put a single tag or throw-up over a strict Swiss grid to stage the clash between institutional order and a street voice.
- Pop Art Graphics Contrasts · Set one loud appropriated Pop image inside a strict grid with a neutral grotesque so the irony reads as deliberate rather than chaotic.
- Italian Painted Film Poster (Rome Studios) Contrasts · Grid, restraint and photographic objectivity are the opposite of a crowded painted montage.