Style combination · Pairs well
Newsroom Data Graphics × International Typographic Style
Swiss flush-left grotesque setting on a strict grid carries the chart style into print editions, posters and reports while keeping the same rational voice.
Mix them and make something Newsroom Data Graphics International Typographic 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.
Newsroom Data Graphics & Scrollytelling International Typographic Style
- Type from International Typographic Style
- Colour from International Typographic Style
- Form from Newsroom Data Graphics
- Composition from Newsroom Data Graphics
- Surface from Newsroom Data Graphics
02
The type
Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.
Text · Newsroom Data Graphics
The house style of newspaper graphics desks since about 2009–2011 (the New York Times graphics desk, D3.js, the Guardian Datablog): conventional charts drawn from the data, on a white or pale paper ground with light grey gridlines and no axis titles, lines labelled directly in place of a legend where possible and short annotations saying what to look at. A flush-left title states the finding and a source line closes the chart; one highlight colour picks out the story against grey context. In long-form pieces the graphic stays pinned while the text scrolls past and steps it through its states.
Inter; Newsroom Data Graphics used Helvetica and Arial
03
The colours
The ground and leading colours come from International Typographic Style, with a counter-accent from Newsroom Data Graphics. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.
Newsroom Data Graphics & Scrollytelling International Typographic Style
-
#f2f0e9ground · 36% -
#111111ink · 14% -
#e1251baccent · 18% -
#faab18accent · 14% -
#1f4e9caccent · 10% -
#1380a1accent · 8%
As CSS
:root {
--ground: #f2f0e9;
--ink: #111111;
--accent-1: #e1251b;
--accent-2: #faab18;
--accent-3: #1f4e9c;
--accent-4: #1380a1;
--font-display: "Inter Tight", sans-serif;
--font-text: "Inter", sans-serif;
}Use it with care
Newsroom Data Graphics & Scrollytelling: The look signals checked, sourced reporting: never use it to present invented, unsourced or AI-generated figures as data, always name the source, and do not copy a newspaper's proprietary typefaces, masthead or logo. Give every chart a text summary and do not let colour alone carry the meaning, for readers who use screen readers or cannot tell the highlight colours apart. In a mock-up or generated image the figures are invented: label them plainly as illustrative (for example 'Source: illustrative data'), and never attribute them to a real newspaper, agency, survey or person.
04
The two styles
05
More combinations
With Newsroom Data Graphics
- Dark Tech Minimalism Contrasts · The dark dashboard shows unannotated metrics in tiles for people who already know what to look for; the newsroom chart sits on white and tells a general reader in words what the data shows. Add a finding title and one annotation when a dashboard has to explain itself.
- Isotype Pictorial Statistics Pairs well · When the count is of people, swap the bar for an Isotype row of repeated figures and keep the newsroom's flush-left finding title, annotations and source line.
- GOV.UK Design (GDS Style) Pairs well · Both are plain public-information web design on a white column with colours that each have one job; set the charts inside GOV.UK-style plain-text pages for public data releases.
- Data Humanism Contrasts · Newsroom graphics use chart types readers already know, labelled directly so they can be read at a glance; data humanism invents a new hand-drawn code for each dataset and asks for slow reading. Use the newsroom chart for the finding, a hand-drawn data portrait for the people behind it.
- Legible City Wayfinding (Heads-Up Pedestrian Maps) Pairs well · Add the annotated locator maps of data journalism to explain a neighbourhood with the same heads-up clarity.
- Instagram Slideshow Activism (Social-Justice Infographics) Contrasts · Sourced charts with a stated finding are the next step from a slide of bare bullet-point claims; the source line on every slide is common ground, since @soyouwanttotalkabout's maker said hers stood out for 'including sources at the bottom of every slide'.
- Sketchnoting and Graphic Recording Contrasts · Drawn live from speech rather than constructed from data; the pairing makes a plain summary more personal.
With International Typographic Style
- Art Nouveau Contrasts · Ornamental curves against an orthogonal grid make a strong deliberate tension.
- Brutalist Web Design Pairs well · Strip the grid to raw HTML defaults to get a rawer, contemporary take on Swiss honesty.
- Psychedelic Poster Contrasts · Its exact opposite on legibility; borrow one swirling element to break a too-cold Swiss layout.
- Japanese Postwar Modernism Pairs well · Add Japanese restraint and emblematic colour fields to the grid for warmth without losing order.
- American Traditional Tattoo Flash Contrasts · Rational grid and sans-serif against sentimental, hand-lettered emblems: one flash motif on a Swiss layout makes a sharp contrast.
- Graffiti & Hip-Hop Graphics Contrasts · Put a single tag or throw-up over a strict Swiss grid to stage the clash between institutional order and a street voice.
- Pop Art Graphics Contrasts · Set one loud appropriated Pop image inside a strict grid with a neutral grotesque so the irony reads as deliberate rather than chaotic.
- Italian Painted Film Poster (Rome Studios) Contrasts · Grid, restraint and photographic objectivity are the opposite of a crowded painted montage.