Style combination · Pairs well
NK Textilkammare Geometric Print × Scandinavian Functionalism
The parent language: a calm functionalist layout of type and white space with one band of NK-style striped cloth as its only ornament.
Mix them and make something NK Textilkammare Geometric Print Scandinavian Functionalism
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.
NK Textilkammare Geometric Print (Astrid Sampe, Signerad Textil) Scandinavian Functionalism
- Type from Scandinavian Functionalism
- Colour from NK Textilkammare Geometric Print
- Form from NK Textilkammare Geometric Print
- Composition from NK Textilkammare Geometric Print
- Surface from Scandinavian Functionalism
02
The type
Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.
Text · Scandinavian Functionalism
Nordic functionalism (funkis) arrived in graphic form with Sigurd Lewerentz's posters and winged emblem for the 1930 Stockholm Exhibition. It adapted Bauhaus rationalism to a social-democratic ideal of beautiful everyday things for everyone. Its graphic language is modernism with warmth: clear sans-serif or humane serif type, generous space, friendly simplified symbols and colours taken from nature, applied to public services, consumer goods and national identities.
Jost; Scandinavian Functionalism used Futura and Berling Antikva
03
The colours
The ground and leading colours come from NK Textilkammare Geometric Print, with a counter-accent from Scandinavian Functionalism. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.
NK Textilkammare Geometric Print (Astrid Sampe, Signerad Textil) Scandinavian Functionalism
-
#f2eee4ground · 36% -
#161616ink · 14% -
#e5b51faccent · 18% -
#c62a20accent · 14% -
#1f4f9aaccent · 10% -
#8f8b82accent · 8%
As CSS
:root {
--ground: #f2eee4;
--ink: #161616;
--accent-1: #e5b51f;
--accent-2: #c62a20;
--accent-3: #1f4f9a;
--accent-4: #8f8b82;
--font-display: "Jost", sans-serif;
--font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}04
The two styles
05
More combinations
With NK Textilkammare Geometric Print
- Finnish Bold Print (Marimekko Modernism) Contrasts · Marimekko enlarges one hand-cut or brushed motif to a huge repeat with a deliberately wobbly edge; NK's geometric strand keeps small, ruled units on a black-and-white base. Set one against the other to show scale against restraint.
- Festival of Britain 'Contemporary' Pattern (Lucienne Day and the Festival Pattern Group) Pairs well · The British contemporary prints of the same years share screen-printed, all-over repeats in limited flat colour; borrow their spindly drawn line for a lighter variant of a ruled NK stripe.
- Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints Contrasts · The other Stockholm house of printed linen in the same decades: Frank fills the cloth with many-coloured invented plants, NK's geometric prints with a few lines in black, white and one accent.
- De Stijl Pairs well · Sampe's late-1940s fabrics followed Mondrian: take De Stijl's black lines and primary accents and turn them into an even, directionless repeat.
With Scandinavian Functionalism
- Minimalist Graphic Design Pairs well · Add natural colour and rounded forms to minimalist reduction for calm, approachable consumer branding.
- Victorian Letterpress & Wood Type Contrasts · The crowded Victorian handbill is what funkis cleared away; quote one for a heritage-versus-modern contrast.
- Corporate Memphis Contrasts · Both aim for friendliness, but Corporate Memphis shouts; use Nordic restraint to get warmth from colour and space instead of rubbery figures.
- International Typographic Style Pairs well · Warm a Swiss grid with Nordic colour and one simple, friendly symbol to keep order without coldness.
- DTC 'Blanding' / Millennial Minimalism Pairs well · Shares a warm, domestic restraint; borrow Nordic materials and craft photography to give a pastel system more texture and credibility.
- Moomin Graphics (Tove Jansson's Pen-Drawn World and its Licensed Afterlife) Pairs well · The Teema mug is the meeting point: a plain functional Nordic shape carrying one warm hand drawing.
- Finnish Bold Print (Marimekko Modernism) Pairs well · The same Nordic ideal of good everyday things, turned up loud; set one Marimekko-scale print against a calm funkis layout with a light ground and a plain sans so the pattern carries all the colour.
- Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints Contrasts · Frank's prints were his answer to functionalist austerity in the same Swedish rooms: use a calm functionalist layout and let one Frank-style print be its only ornament.