Style combination · Pairs well

Minimalist Graphic Design × Torres Strait Islander Linocut

Set a print commissioned or licensed from an Islander artist on a quiet layout of generous white space and one restrained sans, so the carved density carries the page alone.

From the research on Torres Strait Islander Linocut

Mix them and make something Minimalist Graphic Design Torres Strait Islander Linocut

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Torres Strait Islander Linocut, their arrangement from Minimalist Graphic Design, the finish from Torres Strait Islander Linocut. 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.

Minimalist Graphic Design Torres Strait Islander Linocut

Type from Minimalist Graphic Design: Grotesque & neo-grotesque
Wide letterspacing
Colour from Minimalist Graphic Design: Monochrome
Flat fields
Form from Torres Strait Islander Linocut: Stylised figuration
Abundant decoration

Minimalist Graphic Design avoids abundant decoration: this is where the two pull against each other.
Composition from Minimalist Graphic Design: Isolated object
Generous white space

Torres Strait Islander Linocut avoids generous white space: this is where the two pull against each other.
Surface from Torres Strait Islander Linocut: Carved line

The type

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

Display · Minimalist Graphic Design

Quiet

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

Text · Torres Strait Islander Linocut

Relief prints by Torres Strait Islander artists of Zenadth Kes, which grew from an Indigenous visual art course at Cairns College of TAFE by 1991 and the Mualgau Minaral collective on Mua (Moa) Island. Dennis Nona, Billy Missi, Alick Tipoti, Brian Robinson and others carry island carving into lino: ancestral heroes, canoes, sharks, dugong and stars interlock across a surface packed with minaral, fine incised hatching and zigzags, cut as a black key block, often with added colour, some prints over two metres long, and Robinson also sets superheroes and pop-culture icons among the minaral.

Caveat; Torres Strait Islander Linocut used Printmaker's pencilled margin under the image and Artist's name cut into the block so it prints with the image

The colours

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

Minimalist Graphic Design Torres Strait Islander Linocut

#ffffff ground · 36%
#1a1a1a ink · 14%
#d9d6d0 accent · 18%
#a5432a accent · 14%
#8c8a86 accent · 10%
#1d4e7a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ffffff;
  --ink: #1a1a1a;
  --accent-1: #d9d6d0;
  --accent-2: #a5432a;
  --accent-3: #8c8a86;
  --accent-4: #1d4e7a;
  --font-display: "Inter Tight", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Caveat", cursive;
}

Use it with care

Torres Strait Islander Linocut: These prints are the work of named Torres Strait Islander artists, most of them living and in copyright, and their stories, totems, constellations and minaral patterns belong to particular families, clans and islands of Zenadth Kes; Mariw Minaral, the title of Alick Tipoti's 2020–2023 exhibition, means spiritual patterns, and the hidden images within his patterns are secrets that protect sacred cultural information. Torres Strait Islanders are a distinct people from Aboriginal Australians: even the V&A files Nona's print under 'Australian Aboriginal' style, so do not label the work Aboriginal, 'tribal' or generically Pacific, or blend it with dot painting or other Oceanian traditions. Commission or license work from Islander artists and their art centres, such as Moa Arts (Ngalmun Lagau Minaral) on Mua, and follow Creative Australia's Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts. Borrow only the general method of a densely carved black relief, never a particular print, an artist's figures, a legend or a constellation story; never invent Zenadth Kes legends, masks, headdresses or minaral as decoration, never add an artist's signature, and never present a generated image as a Torres Strait Islander print.