Stylogeny combining Memphis Design × Minimalist Graphic Design

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Style combination · Contrasts

Memphis Design × Minimalist Graphic Design

Memphis's clashing patterns are the antidote to minimal reticence; a single Memphis accent makes a minimal layout playful.

From the research on Minimalist Graphic Design

Mix them and make something Memphis Design Minimalist Graphic Design

PopMemphis Design × Minimalist Graphic
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Memphis Design, their arrangement from Minimalist Graphic Design, the finish from Memphis Design. Not a real work, and not an image of either 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.

Memphis Design Minimalist Graphic Design

Type from Minimalist Graphic Design
Colour from Memphis Design

Minimalist Graphic Design avoids full polychrome: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.

Form from Memphis Design
Composition from Minimalist Graphic Design
Surface from Memphis Design

02

The type

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

Display · Minimalist Graphic Design

Pop

Inter Tight, standing in for Helvetica Neue (light weights)

Text · Memphis Design

The Milan collective founded by Ettore Sottsass, whose furniture, laminates and objects (first shown in September 1981) became a graphic language of their own. Clashing colours, speckles, squiggles, zigzags and primitive geometric shapes were combined with deliberate bad taste, mocking modernist good form while quoting 1950s kitsch, Pop and Art Deco.

Jost; Memphis Design used Futura and ITC Avant Garde Gothic

03

The colours

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

Memphis Design Minimalist Graphic Design

  • #ffd23f ground · 36%
  • #111111 ink · 14%
  • #ff5a36 accent · 18%
  • #f1efea accent · 14%
  • #2ec4b6 accent · 10%
  • #8c8a86 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ffd23f;
  --ink: #111111;
  --accent-1: #ff5a36;
  --accent-2: #f1efea;
  --accent-3: #2ec4b6;
  --accent-4: #8c8a86;
  --font-display: "Inter Tight", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}

04

The two styles

A dense geometric pattern on a pink background combines turquoise polka-dot triangles, yellow squares with black dashes, blue circles with yellow sprinkles, orange-red zigzags, and scattered squiggles and small shapes. Bold black offset shapes give many motifs a shadowed, layered appearance. 1981–1988 · Southern Europe Memphis Design The Milan collective founded by Ettore Sottsass, whose furniture, laminates and objects (first shown in September 1981) became a graphic language of their own. Clashing colours, speckles, squiggles, zigzags and primitive geometric shapes were combined with deliberate bad taste, mocking modernist good form while quoting 1950s kitsch, Pop and Art Deco. A minimalist white poster has the widely spaced black words “STILL FARTHER” near the upper left and a large black circle in the lower-right area. Most of the surface is empty white space. 1965–present · Global / networked Minimalist Graphic Design Modernism reduced to its barest means, informed by 1960s Minimal art and Japanese emptiness: one image or line of type, vast white or neutral space, a monochrome or near-monochrome palette and meticulous typographic detail. From ECM record sleeves to Muji and Apple packaging, it signals quality, calm and confidence by withholding rather than adding.

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More combinations

With Memphis Design

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With Minimalist Graphic Design

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