Style combination · Contrasts
Scandinavian Functionalism × Victorian Letterpress
The crowded Victorian handbill is what funkis cleared away; quote one for a heritage-versus-modern contrast.
Mix them and make something Scandinavian Functionalism Victorian Letterpress
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.
Scandinavian Functionalism Victorian Letterpress & Wood Type
- Type from Victorian Letterpress
- Colour from Scandinavian Functionalism
- Form from Victorian Letterpress
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Scandinavian Functionalism avoids abundant decoration: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
- Composition from Scandinavian Functionalism
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Victorian Letterpress avoids generous white space: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
- Surface from Victorian Letterpress
02
The type
Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.
Display · Victorian Letterpress
Together
Abril Fatface, standing in for Fat face romans (Thorne, Figgins)
Text · Scandinavian Functionalism
Nordic functionalism (funkis) arrived in graphic form with Sigurd Lewerentz's posters and winged emblem for the 1930 Stockholm Exhibition. It adapted Bauhaus rationalism to a social-democratic ideal of beautiful everyday things for everyone. Its graphic language is modernism with warmth: clear sans-serif or humane serif type, generous space, friendly simplified symbols and colours taken from nature, applied to public services, consumer goods and national identities.
Jost; Scandinavian Functionalism used Futura and Berling Antikva
03
The colours
The ground and leading colours come from Scandinavian Functionalism, with a counter-accent from Victorian Letterpress. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.
Scandinavian Functionalism Victorian Letterpress & Wood Type
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#f6f3ecground · 36% -
#1f2a37ink · 14% -
#e3b53aaccent · 18% -
#b3322baccent · 14% -
#3e6b50accent · 10% -
#24477daccent · 8%
As CSS
:root {
--ground: #f6f3ec;
--ink: #1f2a37;
--accent-1: #e3b53a;
--accent-2: #b3322b;
--accent-3: #3e6b50;
--accent-4: #24477d;
--font-display: "Abril Fatface", serif;
--font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}04
The two styles
05
More combinations
With Scandinavian Functionalism
- Minimalist Graphic Design Pairs well · Add natural colour and rounded forms to minimalist reduction for calm, approachable consumer branding.
- Corporate Memphis Contrasts · Both aim for friendliness, but Corporate Memphis shouts; use Nordic restraint to get warmth from colour and space instead of rubbery figures.
- International Typographic Style Pairs well · Warm a Swiss grid with Nordic colour and one simple, friendly symbol to keep order without coldness.
- NK Textilkammare Geometric Print (Astrid Sampe, Signerad Textil) Pairs well · The parent language: a calm functionalist layout of type and white space with one band of NK-style striped cloth as its only ornament.
- DTC 'Blanding' / Millennial Minimalism Pairs well · Shares a warm, domestic restraint; borrow Nordic materials and craft photography to give a pastel system more texture and credibility.
- Moomin Graphics (Tove Jansson's Pen-Drawn World and its Licensed Afterlife) Pairs well · The Teema mug is the meeting point: a plain functional Nordic shape carrying one warm hand drawing.
- Finnish Bold Print (Marimekko Modernism) Pairs well · The same Nordic ideal of good everyday things, turned up loud; set one Marimekko-scale print against a calm funkis layout with a light ground and a plain sans so the pattern carries all the colour.
- Josef Frank and Svenskt Tenn Botanical Prints Contrasts · Frank's prints were his answer to functionalist austerity in the same Swedish rooms: use a calm functionalist layout and let one Frank-style print be its only ornament.
With Victorian Letterpress
- Hand-Painted Signage & Vernacular Lettering Pairs well · Sign writers and type founders traded letterforms; add brushed shading and drop shadows to wood-type headlines for a street-made feel.
- Push Pin Style Pairs well · Push Pin revived Victorian display faces with irony; mix one wood-type headline with modern illustration for the same knowing nostalgia.
- International Typographic Style Contrasts · One face, flush left and white space against a centred clamour of faces: use the contrast to test whether hierarchy needs variety at all.
- Arts & Crafts Movement Contrasts · Morris reacted against exactly this commercial clutter; set the two side by side to show craft restraint versus jobbing exuberance.
- HfG Ulm Systematic Design Contrasts · A Victorian mixed-face handbill is the clutter Ulm's one-family rule was meant to cure; use it as a before-and-after foil.
- Victorian Colour Toy Books (Evans, Crane, Caldecott and Greenaway) Contrasts · Its black-letter-dense, type-and-ornament jobbing page is the opposite of a picture-led page; combine them by hanging a wood-type title over a flat colour picture.
- Dada Pairs well · Raid Victorian wood type and stock ornaments as the Dadaists did, but scatter them instead of centring them.
- American Four-Colour Comic Book (Golden to Bronze Age) Pairs well · Both are cheap letterpress print that shouts to passers-by; borrow the playbill's stacked display capitals, banners and rules for a comic cover's blurbs and price box, while keeping the comic's hand-drawn letters and keyline art.