Stylogeny combining Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji × Taishō Roman

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Style combination · Contrasts

Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji × Taishō Roman

Set its soft, pastel, romantic lyrical figure against the hard-edged flat geometry of Showa modern to calibrate sentiment against machine-age confidence.

From the research on Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji

Mix them and make something Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji Taishō Roman

RoseShowa Modern × Taishō Roman1925 · 1910
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji, their arrangement from Taishō Roman, the finish from Taishō Roman. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

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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.

Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji Taishō Roman & Lyrical Illustration

Type from Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji
Colour from Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji
Form from Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji

Taishō Roman avoids geometric primitives: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.

Composition from Taishō Roman
Surface from Taishō Roman

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The type

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

Display · Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji

Rose

Shippori Mincho, standing in for Zuan-moji (図案文字), designed display lettering for kanji

Text · Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji

The commercial graphic design of Japan's interwar modern-city years, when trained design workers (zuan-ka) made flat, stylised posters for department stores, subways and cosmetics. Kanji and kana were drawn as designed lettering (zuan-moji) beside stylised modern-girl figures and machine-age motifs. Sugiura's early work was Art Nouveau, and Yamana's Shiseido work was softer and more elegant, so the look is less rigid than the Art Deco of the West and less lyrical and pastel than Taisho Roman.

Shippori Mincho; Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji used Zuan-moji (図案文字), designed display lettering for kanji and Zuan-moji (図案文字), designed display lettering for kana

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The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji, with a counter-accent from Taishō Roman. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji Taishō Roman & Lyrical Illustration

  • #f1e8d4 ground · 36%
  • #1b1b1b ink · 14%
  • #e0a82e accent · 18%
  • #b8333a accent · 14%
  • #1f4e79 accent · 10%
  • #d98b8f accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f1e8d4;
  --ink: #1b1b1b;
  --accent-1: #e0a82e;
  --accent-2: #b8333a;
  --accent-3: #1f4e79;
  --accent-4: #d98b8f;
  --font-display: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
  --font-text: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
}

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The two styles

A stylised woman in a red swimsuit and wide-brimmed hat poses beside a blue sea beneath large Japanese lettering. A yellow sun, two birds, a lighthouse on a rocky shore, and a train crossing an arched viaduct complete the coastal scene. 1925–1940 · East Asia Showa Modern Commercial Art and Zuan-moji The commercial graphic design of Japan's interwar modern-city years, when trained design workers (zuan-ka) made flat, stylised posters for department stores, subways and cosmetics. Kanji and kana were drawn as designed lettering (zuan-moji) beside stylised modern-girl figures and machine-age motifs. Sugiura's early work was Art Nouveau, and Yamana's Shiseido work was softer and more elegant, so the look is less rigid than the Art Deco of the West and less lyrical and pastel than Taisho Roman. 1910–1940 · East Asia Taishō Roman & Lyrical Illustration The lyrical illustration (jojōga) of late-Meiji to early-Shōwa Japan, led by Takehisa Yumeji: willowy, large-eyed women in kimono drawn with an Art Nouveau contour, set among camellias and kimono patterns and lettered by hand. Made for sheet-music covers, girls' magazines, postcards and paper goods, it is intimate and melancholic rather than ornamental, and its eyes and moods passed through Nakahara Jun'ichi into shōjo manga.

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