Style combination · Contrasts

Mongol Bichig Calligraphy × Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography

Both set text in vertical columns, but Song–Ming fills square cells in columns that advance from right to left, while bichig joins its letters down a spine and reads from left to right.

From the research on Mongol Bichig Calligraphy & Ugalz Ornament

Mix them and make something Mongol Bichig Calligraphy Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Mongol Bichig Calligraphy, their arrangement from Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography, the finish from Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography. 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.

Mongol Bichig Calligraphy & Ugalz Ornament Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography (Songti / Mincho)

Type from Mongol Bichig Calligraphy: Brush & pen calligraphy
Rotated & vertical setting
Colour from Mongol Bichig Calligraphy: Flat fields
Primary triad
Form from Mongol Bichig Calligraphy: Folk & sacred symbols
Emblems & badges
Composition from Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography: Modular grid
Column grid
Surface from Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography: 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 · Mongol Bichig Calligraphy

Atlas

Kaushan Script; Mongol Bichig Calligraphy used Classical Mongolian (Uyghur-Mongolian) script, ninety letter forms joined vertically by continuous strokes, written with a reed pen until the 18th century and with the brush after it and 'Folded' condensed forms of the script, drawn to fill emblems, logos, coins and stamps, as in the 'Mongol Uls' of the State Seal

Text · Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography

The page and letter of the East Asian book. Song block cutters copied the regular script of Tang masters; from the mid-16th century Ming cutters straightened it into a knife-made letter of thin horizontals, thick verticals and triangular stroke ends. Equal square characters run in right-to-left vertical columns in a ruled frame folded at a central column. As metal type in Shanghai and Nagasaki it became Mincho, Myeongjo and the standard CJK text face. Frame, rules and fold column belong to the woodblock page; type keeps the letter, the square and, in Japan and Taiwan, the vertical column.

Shippori Mincho; Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography used Song block-cut regular script after Ouyang Xun, Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan and Ming-style Songti / Mingti, the straightened 'craftsman's' letter, mature by the Wanli era

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Mongol Bichig Calligraphy, with a counter-accent from Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Mongol Bichig Calligraphy & Ugalz Ornament Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography (Songti / Mincho)

#f4efe3 ground · 36%
#16130f ink · 14%
#e0a526 accent · 18%
#b5342b accent · 14%
#d6c49c accent · 10%
#1d4f91 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f4efe3;
  --ink: #16130f;
  --accent-1: #e0a526;
  --accent-2: #b5342b;
  --accent-3: #d6c49c;
  --accent-4: #1d4f91;
  --font-display: "Kaushan Script", cursive;
  --font-text: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
}

Use it with care

Mongol Bichig Calligraphy & Ugalz Ornament: Mongol bichig is the living script of Mongols in Mongolia and in Inner Mongolia, where in 2020 China moved three school subjects in Mongolian-medium schools into Mandarin, met by protests and school boycotts; UNESCO lists Mongolian calligraphy as heritage in need of urgent safeguarding, and at inscription in 2013 only three scholars were training just over twenty young calligraphers. Have every word written or checked by a fluent reader or calligrapher: letters change shape by position, so pseudo-script, mirrored text, text rotated the wrong way and letters broken up as texture read as nonsense. The Soyombo is a state symbol on the flag and emblem, and Mongolia regulates the use of its state symbols by law (Constitution, Article 12(7)): the Law on State Symbols (1994) forbids disparaging them and imitating the State Seal. The endless knot, wishing jewel and lotus are Buddhist auspicious signs; keep them and the state symbols out of trivial or demeaning uses. The khas (swastika) is an old Mongolian sign of good fortune but reads as the Nazi swastika to many audiences, so avoid it outside a context that explains it, and commission or credit Mongolian calligraphers and craftspeople rather than tracing their work.

Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography (Songti / Mincho): Have any Chinese, Japanese or Korean text set and proofread by a fluent reader: Song, Mincho and Myeongjo fonts draw some characters differently for each locale, and pseudo-characters, mirrored glyphs or random hanzi used as texture read as nonsense or worse. Pages of Buddhist sutras and other scripture carry devotional text; do not crop them into decoration.