Stylogeny combining Minimalist Graphic Design × Superflat

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Style combination · Contrasts

Minimalist Graphic Design × Superflat

One dense field of smiling flowers on an otherwise empty white page gives a minimal layout a single loud focal point without giving up its calm.

From the research on Superflat

Mix them and make something Minimalist Graphic Design Superflat

LuxeMinimalist Graphic × Superflat1965 · 1993
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Superflat, their arrangement from Minimalist Graphic Design, the finish from Superflat. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

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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.

Minimalist Graphic Design Superflat

Type from Minimalist Graphic Design
Colour from Superflat

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

Form from Superflat
Composition from Minimalist Graphic Design
Surface from Superflat

02

The type

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

Display · Minimalist Graphic Design

Luxe

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

Text · Superflat

The flat, saturated, cartoon-crowded look that Takashi Murakami named in his exhibition and manifesto Superflat (Tokyo, 2000; US tour 2001). It draws a line from Edo painting and prints to postwar anime and manga, and flattens high and low, art and merchandise into one plane. Smiling flowers, many-eyed characters and anime figures come in unshaded polychrome, smooth and glossy, cute and grotesque at once, sold as handbags and album covers as well as paintings. This entry follows the drawn core of Murakami and his Kaikai Kiki circle; the shows also held photography, video and sculpture.

Zen Maru Gothic; Superflat used Letters drawn into the character and Many-coloured repeated monogram

03

The colours

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

Minimalist Graphic Design Superflat

  • #fbfaf5 ground · 36%
  • #1a1a1a ink · 14%
  • #ffd900 accent · 18%
  • #d9d6d0 accent · 14%
  • #00a0e9 accent · 10%
  • #8c8a86 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #fbfaf5;
  --ink: #1a1a1a;
  --accent-1: #ffd900;
  --accent-2: #d9d6d0;
  --accent-3: #00a0e9;
  --accent-4: #8c8a86;
  --font-display: "Inter Tight", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Zen Maru Gothic", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Superflat: Some canonical works use explicit otaku sexual imagery, such as Murakami's My Lonesome Cowboy (1998), and associated artists engage with lolicon art: Mr. describes himself as a lolicon and Henmaru Machino parodies it; never sexualise childlike figures. The mushroom-cloud skulls of Murakami's Time Bokan works and the title Little Boy, the name of the Hiroshima bomb, refer to the atomic bombings, and critics such as Dong-Yeon Koh argue that this victim narrative obscures Japanese aggression in China and Korea; do not use mushroom clouds or skulls as cute decoration. Handle borrowed Buddhist iconography and phrases, such as Kannon, with respect, and draw original characters and flowers: Mr. DOB, the smiling flowers and the Louis Vuitton monogram are owned designs.

04

The two styles

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. A densely packed, brightly coloured cartoon poster reads “HAPPYVERSE” above a smiling blue-haired character with extra eyes on their forehead, hair and outstretched palms. Smiling flowers, winged rabbits, floating creatures, stars and planets surround the character, with a smiling Earth at the bottom. 1993–present · East Asia, Global / networked Superflat The flat, saturated, cartoon-crowded look that Takashi Murakami named in his exhibition and manifesto Superflat (Tokyo, 2000; US tour 2001). It draws a line from Edo painting and prints to postwar anime and manga, and flattens high and low, art and merchandise into one plane. Smiling flowers, many-eyed characters and anime figures come in unshaded polychrome, smooth and glossy, cute and grotesque at once, sold as handbags and album covers as well as paintings. This entry follows the drawn core of Murakami and his Kaikai Kiki circle; the shows also held photography, video and sculpture.

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