Stylogeny combining Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics × Skønvirke

Try

Style combination · Contrasts

Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics × Skønvirke

The neighbouring Nordic revival tells sagas with dragons and figures; Bindesbøll's strand of Skønvirke keeps ornament abstract, so borrow its interlace and flora but leave the saga figures out.

From the research on Skønvirke (Danish Art Nouveau, Bindesbøll)

Mix them and make something Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics Skønvirke

MemoryNorwegian and × Skønvirke1880 · 1890
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics, their arrangement from Skønvirke, the finish from Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics. Not a real work, and not an image of either 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.

Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics (Munthe & Karelianism) Skønvirke (Danish Art Nouveau, Bindesbøll)

Type from Skønvirke
Colour from Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics
Form from Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics
Composition from Skønvirke
Surface from Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics

02

The type

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

Display · Skønvirke

Memory

Londrina Solid, standing in for Bindesbøll's monograms, trademarks (bomærker), ex libris and letterheads (brevhoveder) for friends and firms, lettered by hand into their ornament (Den Store Danske)

Text · Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics

The flat, decorative branch of Norway's and Finland's national romanticism, which turned Viking carving, the sagas, the Kalevala and old peasant weaving into modern ornament. Gerhard Munthe set the woodcut-like pen style and blackletter type of the 1899 saga edition, had Draumkvæde (1904) hand-lettered after Norse saga manuscripts, and designed tapestries of stiff myth figures in flat folk colour; Akseli Gallen-Kallela gave the Kalevala bold outlines and flat colour in woodcuts, frescoes, ryijy rugs and book vignettes; Dragestil timber buildings carried dragon heads.

Space Mono; Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics used The hand-lettered text of Draumkvæde (1904) and The blackletter text type Munthe chose for Snorre Sturlason

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics, with a counter-accent from Skønvirke. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics (Munthe & Karelianism) Skønvirke (Danish Art Nouveau, Bindesbøll)

  • #e8dcc2 ground · 36%
  • #2a1f17 ink · 14%
  • #c9932e accent · 18%
  • #a3342b accent · 14%
  • #2e4a7d accent · 10%
  • #56703f accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #e8dcc2;
  --ink: #2a1f17;
  --accent-1: #c9932e;
  --accent-2: #a3342b;
  --accent-3: #2e4a7d;
  --accent-4: #56703f;
  --font-display: "Londrina Solid", cursive;
  --font-text: "Space Mono", monospace;
}

Use it with care

Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics (Munthe & Karelianism): In Norway the fascist Nasjonal Samling (1933–45) took a golden sun cross on red, which it claimed as St Olav's shield, for its emblem, leaned heavily on Viking art and symbolism and built on romantic nationalism, so keep saga warriors, dragon ships and the Olav cross away from ethnic-nationalist framing. Old signs near this material, the othala rune, the sun cross (also called Odin's cross) and Odin's valknut, are used by neo-Nazis and other white supremacists, though non-racist pagans also use the othala rune and the valknut: check how such a sign reads in context before borrowing it. Gallen-Kallela's 1918 insignia for the White Army's Order of the Cross of Liberty set a golden swastika into the cross: do not borrow it. Karelianism cast Karelia as a refuge of authentic Finnishness, and some of its ideas later fed the irredentist Greater Finland project, so do not present Karelian or Orthodox folk culture as merely Finland's past: Karelians are a living people with their own language and crafts. In these decades Norway's Norwegianisation policy pressed the Sámi to assimilate: do not fold Sámi duodji motifs into this Norse ornament.

04

The two styles

1880–1922 · Northern Europe Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics (Munthe & Karelianism) The flat, decorative branch of Norway's and Finland's national romanticism, which turned Viking carving, the sagas, the Kalevala and old peasant weaving into modern ornament. Gerhard Munthe set the woodcut-like pen style and blackletter type of the 1899 saga edition, had Draumkvæde (1904) hand-lettered after Norse saga manuscripts, and designed tapestries of stiff myth figures in flat folk colour; Akseli Gallen-Kallela gave the Kalevala bold outlines and flat colour in woodcuts, frescoes, ryijy rugs and book vignettes; Dragestil timber buildings carried dragon heads. An ornate, vertically symmetrical poster surrounds the large blue word “NORDLYS” with curling green leaves, rust-red flowers, blue flourishes and golden dots on a cream background. A narrow botanical border encloses the composition, with circular floral motifs in the corners. 1890–1920 · Northern Europe Skønvirke (Danish Art Nouveau, Bindesbøll) The Danish answer to Art Nouveau, around 1890–1920, seen in print above all in Thorvald Bindesbøll's work: heavy, roughly drawn hand lettering locked into dense ornament of swelling tendrils, cloud and wave forms. Labels, logos, covers and vignettes are framed and centred, in black with one or two flat colours. Bindesbøll kept his ornament abstract; the wider movement added stylised wild flowers, insects and sea life. Both trade Art Nouveau's thin whiplash line and female figures for blunt, swelling masses. The 1904 Carlsberg label is still in use in adapted form.

05

More combinations

With Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics

With Skønvirke

Every style combination