Style combination · Contrasts

Iranian Modernist Graphic Design × Turkish Modernist Poster

Its Iranian contemporary also learned from the Polish poster, but built its posters on Persian calligraphy and miniature; after the 1928 alphabet reform Turkish designers worked in Latin letters and quoted Kufic only as a reduced sign. Choose Tehran when the letterform should be the protagonist, Istanbul when a drawn figure should be.

From the research on Turkish Modernist Poster & Graphic Design

Mix them and make something Iranian Modernist Graphic Design Turkish Modernist Poster

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Turkish Modernist Poster, their arrangement from Turkish Modernist Poster, the finish from Turkish Modernist Poster. 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.

Iranian Modernist Graphic Design Turkish Modernist Poster & Graphic Design

Type from Iranian Modernist Graphic Design: Brush & pen calligraphy
Hand-lettering
Colour from Iranian Modernist Graphic Design: Limited spot colours
Earth & mineral
Form from Turkish Modernist Poster: Stylised figuration
Restrained accents
Composition from Turkish Modernist Poster: Isolated object
Single focal point
Surface from Turkish Modernist Poster: Flat

The type

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

Display · Iranian Modernist Graphic Design

Wake

Rakkas, standing in for Nastaʿlīq

Text · Turkish Modernist Poster

The posters of Istanbul's first generation of professional graphic designers for theatres, films, festivals and exhibitions. Mengü Ertel, Yurdaer Altıntaş and later Bülent Erkmen reduced each play or film to one visual idea or pun: a figure, mask, eye or object drawn as flat, simplified shapes in two or three inks on an open field of colour or white, with a hand-drawn or bold serif title. From the 1980s Erkmen pared the language down further to a giant word, a stripe or one photographed detail.

Newsreader; Turkish Modernist Poster used Hand-drawn title lettering by the designers themselves, e.g. Altıntaş's heavy lowercase 'aptal kız' (Kent Oyuncuları, 1961) and his condensed brush capitals for Dormen Tiyatrosu's 'Bugün Git Yarın Gel' and Bold and book serif titles centred above the image (Erkmen's Kent Oyuncuları posters and 'Les Civilisations Anatoliennes', 1983, in a Times-like transitional serif), and heavy serif capitals on Ertel's 'Jan Dark'ın Çilesi' and 'Le Gardien'

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Iranian Modernist Graphic Design, with a counter-accent from Turkish Modernist Poster. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Iranian Modernist Graphic Design Turkish Modernist Poster & Graphic Design

#efe6d2 ground · 36%
#1a1a1a ink · 14%
#c49a3a accent · 18%
#c8162d accent · 14%
#007266 accent · 10%
#36345a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #efe6d2;
  --ink: #1a1a1a;
  --accent-1: #c49a3a;
  --accent-2: #c8162d;
  --accent-3: #007266;
  --accent-4: #36345a;
  --font-display: "Rakkas", cursive;
  --font-text: "Newsreader", serif;
}

Use it with care

Turkish Modernist Poster & Graphic Design: These posters are the signed work of named designers, several of them living or recently dead: borrow the method (one flat sign, two or three inks, an open field), not a particular poster. Karagöz shadow theatre is a living tradition on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (2009), and square Kufic often spells sacred names such as Allah, Muhammad or Ali, so do not cut either into decoration without knowing what it says.