Style combination · Contrasts

Minjung Woodcut Graphics × Taller de Gráfica Popular

Nearest in the atlas, and the closest Mexican print lineage to the Mexican Muralism that MMCA names as a source: both cut black-line people's prints for movements, but TGP sets condensed Latin capitals and lithographs, while Minjung prints carry short Hangul slogans and dancing, ritual-derived figures, and are scaled up to geolgae banners.

From the research on Minjung Woodcut Graphics (Korean People's Art)

Mix them and make something Minjung Woodcut Graphics Taller de Gráfica Popular

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Minjung Woodcut Graphics, their arrangement from Minjung Woodcut Graphics, the finish from Minjung Woodcut Graphics. 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.

Minjung Woodcut Graphics (Korean People's Art) Taller de Gráfica Popular

Type from Taller de Gráfica Popular: Condensed display
All caps
Colour from Taller de Gráfica Popular: Monochrome
Limited spot colours
Form from Minjung Woodcut Graphics: Stylised figuration
Distortion & exaggeration
Composition from Minjung Woodcut Graphics: Full bleed
Single focal point
Surface from Minjung Woodcut Graphics: Carved line
Paper & letterpress bite

The type

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

Display · Taller de Gráfica Popular

Now!

Inter Tight, standing in for Letterpress grotesque and slab-serif captions

Text · Minjung Woodcut Graphics

The reproducible graphic branch of Minjung misul (people's art), South Korea's art of the 1980s democracy and labour movements. After the Gwangju Uprising of May 1980, artists such as Oh Yoon and Hong Sung-dam took up the woodcut for the movement: bold, succinct black-line figures of workers, farmers, miners and dancers, cut in wood and reused on poetry-book covers, pamphlets, posters, chest badges and enlarged painted geolgae banners for rallies.

Archivo; Minjung Woodcut Graphics used Hangul titles and slogans carved into the woodblock and Brush-written Hangul slogans on painted geolgae banners and posters

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Taller de Gráfica Popular, with a counter-accent from Minjung Woodcut Graphics. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Minjung Woodcut Graphics (Korean People's Art) Taller de Gráfica Popular

#f0e8d6 ground · 36%
#151515 ink · 14%
#c0392b accent · 18%
#c89a3c accent · 14%
#d9c39a accent · 10%
#8a6e4b accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f0e8d6;
  --ink: #151515;
  --accent-1: #c0392b;
  --accent-2: #c89a3c;
  --accent-3: #d9c39a;
  --accent-4: #8a6e4b;
  --font-display: "Inter Tight", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Archivo", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Minjung Woodcut Graphics (Korean People's Art): Minjung prints were made for a living movement and many record the dead of the Gwangju Uprising; their makers or estates hold the rights, and the movement's exhibitions met police suppression (The Power of People in Their 20s, 1985). Their borrowings from shamanic gut, mask dance and Buddhist painting carry ritual meaning in Korea: do not lift those motifs as decorative 'Korean folk' texture, do not turn Gwangju imagery into generic protest branding, and credit the artists by name. The genome describes the reproducible woodcut branch of a wider movement that also painted, made banners, comics and photomontage.