Style combination · Pairs well

Pop Art Graphics × African Wax

Commemorative portrait medallions and off-register colour meet pop's serial portraits; combine them for celebratory, mass-produced portraiture.

From the research on African Wax & Fancy Print

Mix them and make something Pop Art Graphics African Wax

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from African Wax, their arrangement from African Wax, the finish from Pop Art Graphics. 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.

Pop Art Graphics African Wax & Fancy Print

Type from Pop Art Graphics: Hand-lettering
Type as image
Colour from Pop Art Graphics: Primary triad
Flat fields
Form from African Wax: Stylised figuration
Biomorphic curves
Composition from African Wax: All-over field
Repetition & rhythm
Surface from Pop Art Graphics: Halftone & Ben-Day dots
Hard offset shadow

The type

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

Display · Pop Art Graphics

Pop

Bangers; Pop Art Graphics used Comic-book hand lettering and Franklin Gothic

Text · African Wax

Industrially printed cotton made for West and Central African markets, first by Dutch and British mills that imitated Javanese batik with resin resist, and later by African mills. Giant emblematic motifs, an indigo key with offset colours and crackle veining repeat across the cloth, and traders name designs after proverbs and events. Cheaper one-sided fancy prints turn the cloth into commemorative media with portraits, emblems and slogans.

Bodoni Moda; African Wax used Selvedge captions and Bold capitals in ribbon banners for slogans and dates on commemorative fancy cloth

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Pop Art Graphics, with a counter-accent from African Wax. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Pop Art Graphics African Wax & Fancy Print

#fbf8f0 ground · 36%
#111111 ink · 14%
#ffd400 accent · 18%
#e10600 accent · 14%
#c1272d accent · 10%
#0057b8 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #fbf8f0;
  --ink: #111111;
  --accent-1: #ffd400;
  --accent-2: #e10600;
  --accent-3: #c1272d;
  --accent-4: #0057b8;
  --font-display: "Bangers", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Bodoni Moda", serif;
}

Use it with care

African Wax & Fancy Print: Wax print is shared popular culture, but its designs carry names and messages given by African traders and wearers, and commemorative cloths carry political and religious portraits. Learn a design's name and meaning before reusing it, do not use commemorative portraits or party emblems out of context, and credit African designers, mills and traders rather than presenting a European brand or a generic 'African print' as the source.

The two styles

A retro comic-style woman with curled dark hair, a pink headscarf and red nails holds an open bottle of dark fizzy drink. Large yellow “ZING!” lettering fills the top above bright starbursts, bubbles and red, yellow and blue halftone textures.

1955–1975 · North America, Western Europe Pop Art Graphics Pop turned the commercial imagery of post-war consumer culture (comics, packaging, celebrity photographs and advertising) into both its subject and its method. Images are appropriated, enlarged, flattened and repeated; colour is bright and unmodulated; and the printing process itself, from Ben-Day dots to off-register silkscreen, is left visible as a sign of mass production. 1880–present · Sub-Saharan Africa, Western Europe African Wax & Fancy Print Industrially printed cotton made for West and Central African markets, first by Dutch and British mills that imitated Javanese batik with resin resist, and later by African mills. Giant emblematic motifs, an indigo key with offset colours and crackle veining repeat across the cloth, and traders name designs after proverbs and events. Cheaper one-sided fancy prints turn the cloth into commemorative media with portraits, emblems and slogans.