Style combination · Pairs well

Push Pin Style × Zagreb Modernist Graphics

Critics compare Arsovski's 1960s posters to Push Pin's: borrow Push Pin's period-pastiche lettering and add Arsovski's photo collage and rebus titles for a witty cultural poster.

From the research on Zagreb Modernist Graphics (EXAT 51 to Teatar &TD)

Mix them and make something Push Pin Style Zagreb Modernist Graphics

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Zagreb Modernist Graphics, their arrangement from Zagreb Modernist Graphics, the finish from Push Pin Style. 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.

Push Pin Style Zagreb Modernist Graphics (EXAT 51 to Teatar &TD)

Type from Push Pin Style: Ornamented display
Hand-lettering
Colour from Zagreb Modernist Graphics: Limited spot colours
Flat fields
Form from Zagreb Modernist Graphics: Geometric primitives
Non-representational
Composition from Zagreb Modernist Graphics: Modular grid
Repetition & rhythm

Push Pin Style avoids modular grid: this is where the two pull against each other.
Surface from Push Pin Style: Flat

The type

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

Display · Push Pin Style

Wow

Righteous; Push Pin Style used Baby Teeth and Glaser Stencil

Text · Zagreb Modernist Graphics

Zagreb graphic design grown from the EXAT 51 manifesto (1951), which tied abstract art to visual communication. Ivan Picelj's screenprinted posters for the Gallery of Contemporary Art and its New Tendencies shows (1961–1973) multiply one geometric unit or a few letters across the sheet, and Mihajlo Arsovski made letters, collage and quotation the identity of Teatar &TD. Later, Boris Ljubičić's Mediterranean Games circles (1979) kept to signs, while Boris Bućan's huge 1980s screenprints for Split's theatre borrowed Egyptian, Secession and Expressionist idioms around his own patterned figures.

Inter; Zagreb Modernist Graphics used Lowercase neo-grotesque sans for titles and credits on Picelj's New Tendencies posters and Akzidenz-Grotesk, Egyptienne Bold Condensed and Red Roses mixed on Arsovski's 1966 western posters for Kinematografi Zagreb

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Zagreb Modernist Graphics, with a counter-accent from Push Pin Style. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Push Pin Style Zagreb Modernist Graphics (EXAT 51 to Teatar &TD)

#f1ede4 ground · 36%
#131313 ink · 14%
#f0c419 accent · 18%
#e2402a accent · 14%
#2a4a9c accent · 10%
#4a2c86 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f1ede4;
  --ink: #131313;
  --accent-1: #f0c419;
  --accent-2: #e2402a;
  --accent-3: #2a4a9c;
  --accent-4: #4a2c86;
  --font-display: "Righteous", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Inter", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Zagreb Modernist Graphics (EXAT 51 to Teatar &TD): Picelj (died 2011), Arsovski (died 2020) and Bućan (died 2023) are recent and their posters remain in copyright, Arsovski's Teatar &TD logo is still in use, and Boris Ljubičić's 1979 circle symbol is the permanent emblem of the International Committee of the Mediterranean Games, so borrow the method (a multiplied unit, a lowercase credit line, a rebus title) rather than reproducing a particular poster or mark. Do not dress the style in red stars or party slogans as period decor: these designers worked for galleries and theatres in socialist Yugoslavia and deliberately avoided propaganda imagery.