Russian Futurist Book × Zenitism

Both treat the printed page as a manifesto in rough mixed type; combine them for a polemical artist's book.

From the research on Zenitism (Zenit Magazine Typography)

Mix them and make something Russian Futurist Book Zenitism

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Zenitism, their arrangement from Zenitism, the finish from Russian Futurist Book. 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.

Russian Futurist Book Zenitism (Zenit Magazine Typography)

Type from Russian Futurist Book: Hand-lettering
Experimental & distorted
Colour from Russian Futurist Book: Monochrome
Earth & mineral
Form from Zenitism: Non-representational
Rules & bars
Composition from Zenitism: Dynamic asymmetry
Visual tension
Surface from Russian Futurist Book: Paper & letterpress bite

The type

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

Display · Russian Futurist Book

No!

Caveat, standing in for The poets' own handwriting transferred to the lithographic stone (Rozanova and Kruchenykh's samopismo, 'self-writing')

Text · Zenitism

Ljubomir Micić's Yugoslav avant-garde: the monthly Zenit (43 issues, 1921-1926) and its 'abstract metacosmic expressionism' and Balkan 'barbarogenius', a 'modern primitive'. Unlike Mavo or Constructivism it has expressionist roots, Balkan-primitivist doctrine and a multilingual review; it was twice banned. Page design is thinly sourced, so design traits are tentative. Micić later turned to Serbian nationalism; the 'barbarogenius' rhetoric is ethnonational. Wikipedia says Zenitism distanced itself from Dada.

Jost; Zenitism used Mixed printers' display capitals set at contrasting sizes and Passages printed in several languages, untranslated

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Russian Futurist Book, with a counter-accent from Zenitism. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Russian Futurist Book Zenitism (Zenit Magazine Typography)

#ede4cf ground · 36%
#1c1a17 ink · 14%
#d6b44a accent · 18%
#c8281f accent · 14%
#2a4f8a accent · 10%
#b8996a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ede4cf;
  --ink: #1c1a17;
  --accent-1: #d6b44a;
  --accent-2: #c8281f;
  --accent-3: #2a4f8a;
  --accent-4: #b8996a;
  --font-display: "Caveat", cursive;
  --font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Zenitism (Zenit Magazine Typography): Micić later moved toward Serbian nationalism, and the 'barbarogenius' Balkan rhetoric is ethnonational. Treat Zenit as a historical avant-garde periodical, not a neutral look, and do not use its Balkan-primitivist framing as decorative exoticism.

The two styles

A distressed, woodcut-style poster shows an angular black figure striding across jagged mountains and reaching toward a golden sun. A red bird, a green antlered deer, evergreen trees and small plants surround the figure beneath large red lettering.

1910–1920 · Eastern Europe Russian Futurist Book The cheap, small-run books of the Russian Cubo-Futurist poets and painters, from Kruchenykh and Khlebnikov to Goncharova, Larionov and Rozanova. Against the luxurious Symbolist book, they lithographed handwriting and crude neo-primitive drawings together, at times with rubber stamps or colour hectograph, or printed mixed letterpress founts on wallpaper, in thin sewn or stapled pamphlets. Transrational zaum words made the letter itself a visual sound. They adopted Marinetti's manifesto but obstructed his 1914 visit. The Burliuks, Malevich and Kruchenykh were Ukrainian-born, Zdanevich Georgian.

Oversized, tilted letters reading “NOVI” and “PLAN” sit among red, blue, black and gray geometric shapes on a textured cream background. Long black triangular wedges converge over a large red circle near the lower right.

1921–1926 · Southern Europe, Central Europe Zenitism (Zenit Magazine Typography) Ljubomir Micić's Yugoslav avant-garde: the monthly Zenit (43 issues, 1921-1926) and its 'abstract metacosmic expressionism' and Balkan 'barbarogenius', a 'modern primitive'. Unlike Mavo or Constructivism it has expressionist roots, Balkan-primitivist doctrine and a multilingual review; it was twice banned. Page design is thinly sourced, so design traits are tentative. Micić later turned to Serbian nationalism; the 'barbarogenius' rhetoric is ethnonational. Wikipedia says Zenitism distanced itself from Dada.

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