Style combination · Contrasts

Persian Miniature × International Typographic Style

Its opposite: neutral sans, white space and a modular grid against crowded, gilded, figurative pages; a single framed miniature panel can give a strict grid a narrative focal point.

From the research on Persian Miniature (Ilkhanid, Timurid and Safavid Book Painting)

Mix them and make something Persian Miniature International Typographic Style

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Persian Miniature, their arrangement from Persian Miniature, the finish from Persian Miniature. 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.

Persian Miniature (Ilkhanid, Timurid and Safavid Book Painting) International Typographic Style

Type from International Typographic Style: Grotesque & neo-grotesque
Type as image

Persian Miniature avoids grotesque & neo-grotesque: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
Colour from International Typographic Style: Limited spot colours
Flat fields
Form from Persian Miniature: Stylised figuration
Abundant decoration

International Typographic Style avoids abundant decoration: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
Composition from Persian Miniature: Framed panels
Horror vacui

International Typographic Style avoids horror vacui: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
Surface from Persian Miniature: Flat

The type

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

Display · International Typographic Style

Atlas

Inter Tight, standing in for Akzidenz-Grotesk

Text · Persian Miniature

The court book painting of Iran and Timurid Herat, formed in Mongol Tabriz from Islamic, Byzantine and Chinese models: from Rashid al-Din's Jamiʿ al-tawarikh (1314) and the Great Mongol Shahnama to Behzad's Herat and the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp, ending in the album pages of Safavid Isfahan. Small, elegant figures crowd a picture set into ruled columns of verse and framed by coloured rules and gilded margins. Space climbs the page under a high horizon, without linear perspective or cast shadow, in lapis, vermilion, malachite, gold and silver.

EB Garamond; Persian Miniature used Nastaʿlīq, the hanging Persian hand of Timurid and Safavid manuscripts, written in ruled columns around the paintings and Headings written in an illuminated panel across the full width of the text block, set apart from the text in gold and colour, as on the first text page of the Shiraz Shahnama of 1444, where the basmala heads the preface (Cleveland Museum of Art, 1956.10.b)

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from International Typographic Style, with a counter-accent from Persian Miniature. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Persian Miniature (Ilkhanid, Timurid and Safavid Book Painting) International Typographic Style

#f2f0e9 ground · 36%
#111111 ink · 14%
#e1251b accent · 18%
#1f4e9c accent · 14%
#c9a13b accent · 10%
#7a7a7a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f2f0e9;
  --ink: #111111;
  --accent-1: #e1251b;
  --accent-2: #1f4e9c;
  --accent-3: #c9a13b;
  --accent-4: #7a7a7a;
  --font-display: "Inter Tight", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "EB Garamond", serif;
}

Use it with care

Persian Miniature (Ilkhanid, Timurid and Safavid Book Painting): Some histories and poems in this tradition depict the Prophet Muhammad, such as his Night Journey (Miʿraj) on Buraq (a Bustan of Saʿdi folio of c. 1525–35, made probably in Bukhara and Herat rather than in Safavid Iran; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974.294.2); after about 1500 Persian painters usually veiled his face, and many Muslims consider any image of him forbidden, so do not adapt or generate such scenes, never supply a face for the Prophet, and keep holy figures off trivial products. Verses, names of God and Qur'anic phrases in the text panels are real texts: have them written or checked by a fluent reader of Persian and Arabic and never fill panels with pseudo-script. Many famous folios are dispersed: George Demotte broke up the Great Mongol Shahnama and altered its pages, and Arthur Houghton gave folios of the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp to the Metropolitan Museum and sold others one by one before the remains of the manuscript went to Tehran in 1994, so credit each leaf to its manuscript as well as to its present collection. The court tradition declines from the 17th century, which is why the period ends in 1700, but the art of miniature is still practised (Abu'l-Hasan Khan Gaffari in 19th-century Qajar Iran, Mahmoud Farshchian (1930–2025) in our own time); it is living heritage, inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List in 2020 on a joint nomination by Azerbaijan, Iran, Türkiye and Uzbekistan and passed on from master to apprentice, so commission or credit practising painters rather than tracing their work, credit the court and city (Tabriz, Herat, Shiraz, Isfahan) rather than a single modern nation, and never present a generated image as a historical folio.