Style combination · Contrasts
Punk × 2 Tone Graphics
Keep the DIY, in-house spirit but swap cut-and-paste chaos for one controlled, repeatable mark.
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.
Punk & DIY Zine 2 Tone Graphics
- Type from Punk
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2 Tone Graphics avoids eclectic mixing: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
- Colour from 2 Tone Graphics
- Form from 2 Tone Graphics
- Composition from Punk
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2 Tone Graphics avoids collage & layering: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
- Surface from Punk
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2 Tone Graphics avoids photocopy & distress: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
02
The type
Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.
Text · 2 Tone Graphics
The visual identity of 2 Tone Records: a black-and-white checkerboard, taken by Jerry Dammers from an old mod pop-art motif, and a cartoon mascot, Walt Jabsco, a rude boy in suit and pork-pie hat based on a photograph of the Jamaican singer Peter Tosh. Devised by Dammers with Horace Panter, and worked up into artwork by John 'Teflon' Sims and David Storey, it turned punk-era DIY into a controlled, repeatable system and revived the dress of 1960s Jamaican ska and mod. It descends from op art through the check; the DIY spirit of punk is an influence, not the parent.
Inter; 2 Tone Graphics used Helvetica Inserat and Bold grotesque sans capitals
03
The colours
The ground and leading colours come from 2 Tone Graphics, with a counter-accent from Punk. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.
Punk & DIY Zine 2 Tone Graphics
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#f5f5f0ground · 36% -
#111111ink · 14% -
#d9d9d4accent · 18% -
#ff2fa0accent · 14% -
#7a7a7aaccent · 10% -
#d7191caccent · 8%
As CSS
:root {
--ground: #f5f5f0;
--ink: #111111;
--accent-1: #d9d9d4;
--accent-2: #ff2fa0;
--accent-3: #7a7a7a;
--accent-4: #d7191c;
--font-display: "Rock Salt", cursive;
--font-text: "Inter", sans-serif;
}04
The two styles
05
More combinations
With Punk
- Russian Constructivism Pairs well · Borrow Constructivist diagonals and red-and-black bars to give punk collage the agitprop structure post-punk sleeves later adopted.
- Risograph & Indie Print Culture Pairs well · Run punk collages through a riso in fluoro pink and black to keep the DIY ethic while gaining richer, layered colour.
- Corporate Identity Modernism Contrasts · Deface a clean corporate identity with xerox collage to make the critique of polish and authority explicit.
- Frutiger Aero Contrasts · Glossy optimism is everything punk rejects; one torn xerox fragment on an aero gradient reads as instant sabotage.
- Fluxus Graphics (Maciunas) Contrasts · Both mix found type with appropriated pictures, but punk tears and photocopies while Fluxus keeps a clean offset black, justified blocks and a tight edge-to-edge grid; use the Fluxus version when cheap materials should still look ordered.
- Natural Wine Label Art Pairs well · Alice Feiring calls the earlier natural-wine scene punk rock: of Gut Oggau she says 'This is where things grow up and stop being so punk rock' (Punch, 2021). Take punk's refusal of professional polish but drop the collage and the anger: one felt-pen picture on a white label carries the same do-it-yourself stance in a friendlier voice.
- Grapus (French Militant Graphic Collective) Contrasts · Both scribble over photographs, but punk's photocopied blacks and ransom-note type are cheap and nihilist, while Grapus prints bright offset colour, mostly on white, in an optimistic, party-backed voice.
- Situationist Détournement Graphics Contrasts · Punk reprised the situationist prank in the late 1970s, but it packs torn photocopies and mixed type into crowded pages; détournement keeps a few recognisable fragments and lets each one say the opposite of what it said. Borrow the rewritten balloon when a punk layout needs a sharper argument.