Style combination · Contrasts

Socialist Realist Propaganda Poster × Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism

The parent doctrine in its painted poster form, with leaders, slogans and rising diagonals, is the foil: choose ornament, folklore and a flat frontal figure where it chooses the call to arms.

From the research on Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism

Mix them and make something Socialist Realist Propaganda Poster Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism, their arrangement from Socialist Realist Propaganda Poster, the finish from Socialist Realist Propaganda Poster. 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.

Socialist Realist Propaganda Poster Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism

Type from Socialist Realist Propaganda Poster: Hand-lettering
All caps
Colour from Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism: Jewel & metallic
Full polychrome
Form from Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism: Non-representational
Geometric tessellation

Socialist Realist Propaganda Poster avoids non-representational: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
Composition from Socialist Realist Propaganda Poster: Diagonal axis
Full bleed

Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism avoids diagonal axis: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
Surface from Socialist Realist Propaganda Poster: Painterly brushwork

The type

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

Display · Socialist Realist Propaganda Poster

Dawn

Big Shoulders, standing in for Hand-drawn Cyrillic poster capitals in condensed grotesque and slab forms

Text · Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism

The monumental art of Soviet Central Asia after the 1966 Tashkent earthquake: a strand of Socialist Realism mixed with Islamic and national ornament. Prefabricated housing blocks and public buildings in Tashkent and Almaty, and Tashkent's metro stations, got a skin of smalt and ceramic mosaic and concrete sun-screen grilles (panjara) that enlarge Central Asian and Islamic pattern to façade scale. Near-abstract geometric and floral pattern carries much of it; figurative panels add flat, stylised musicians, epic lovers, cosmonauts and scientists in turquoise, deep blue, ochre and orange.

Jost; Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism used The sources document no lettering of the style's own, so the genome's all-caps weight (0.3) is a design recommendation, not an observed choice: for graphics, keep words few and set Cyrillic, Uzbek and Kazakh names in plain capitals so that pattern and figure carry the design and Zhurnalnaya rublenaya, or Magazine Grotesque (designed 1940–56 at the Polygraphmash type bureau under Anatoliy Shchukin, released 1947, Latin added 1962), a Soviet geometric sans after Erbar-Grotesk and Metro, for Cyrillic captions and signs

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism, with a counter-accent from Socialist Realist Propaganda Poster. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Socialist Realist Propaganda Poster Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism

#f1ece0 ground · 36%
#13234f ink · 14%
#d79a2b accent · 18%
#f2c230 accent · 14%
#d2602b accent · 10%
#c8102e accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f1ece0;
  --ink: #13234f;
  --accent-1: #d79a2b;
  --accent-2: #f2c230;
  --accent-3: #d2602b;
  --accent-4: #c8102e;
  --font-display: "Big Shoulders", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Soviet Central Asian Ornamental Modernism: This is official Soviet monumental art made in Central Asia under rule from Moscow: treat its motifs as Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Tajik heritage rather than generic 'Oriental' decoration; credit named artists, among them the Jarsky brothers, Ahmet Shaymuradov and the Kazakh artist Moldakhmet Kenbaev; keep Qur'anic and other sacred Arabic inscriptions, and pseudo-Arabic letters, out of reworked tile patterns; and draw new panels instead of copying surviving mosaics. They are attributed works whose makers or heirs may still hold rights; 157 of them have been listed heritage in Uzbekistan since 25 March 2024, while Almaty has no policy to protect its monumental art, and many mosaics there have been painted over, demolished or hidden behind hoardings and advertisements.