Typography · Typographic treatment
Eclectic mixing
Many typefaces and sizes combined in one composition.
A design choice in Stylogeny’s vocabulary, under typography: what do the letters look like, and how are they set?
- styles make it
- 92
- as a defining choice
- 16
- as a usual one
- 34
- now and then
- 42
- avoid it
- 36
Styles defined by it 16
For these styles it is one of the choices that make the style.
Victorian Letterpress & Wood TypeThe commercial jobbing print of the industrial century: posters, playbills, auction notices and ephemera built from a flood of new display types (fat faces, Egyptians, grotesques, Tuscans and condensed wood type).
Spanish Bullfight Poster (Cartel Taurino)The Spanish bullfight poster in its illustrated form, from Marcelino de Unceta's lithographs (from 1879) to the Valencian house of Ortega, which supplied rings across Spain.
- Italian FuturismLaunched by Marinetti's 1909 manifesto, Futurism glorified speed, machines, the city and war, and turned the printed page into an explosive, noisy field.
- DadaBorn in wartime Zurich at the Cabaret Voltaire in 1916 and spreading to Berlin, Hanover, Cologne and Paris, Dada used chance, absurdity and provocation against the culture that had produced the war.
- Brazilian Modernismo Graphics (Klaxon and the Semana de 22)The print side of São Paulo's Modernismo (1922-29), set in jobbing print shops.
- MavoTokyo's anarchist avant-garde, founded in July 1923 by Murayama Tomoyoshi, back from a year in Berlin, with four former Futurists, and its magazine MAVO (seven issues, July 1924 to August 1925).
- Onitsha Market PamphletsCheap, stapled pamphlets of romance, advice, drama and political biography, written by students, clerks, journalists and traders and printed by jobbing letterpress shops around Onitsha Main Market in eastern Nigeria from the late 1940s.
Fluxus Graphics (Maciunas)The house graphics George Maciunas made from 1962 until his death in 1978 for Fluxus, a network of artists who staged events and sold cheap multiples.
- Punk & DIY ZineThe graphic voice of punk rock in fanzines, record sleeves and gig flyers: images and words cut from newspapers, typed or scrawled, pasted down and run off on a photocopier.
Dutch Expressive Postmodernism (Studio Dumbar & Hard Werken)An anti-functionalist current in Dutch graphic design led by Studio Dumbar in The Hague (from 1977) and the Rotterdam collective Hard Werken (magazine from 1979, design office 1982–1994).
Cranbrook & Deconstructivist TypographyGraduate-school experimentation, centred on Katherine and Michael McCoy's Cranbrook design programme, that applied post-structuralist literary theory to the page.
Emigre & Early Digital TypeRudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko's magazine and type foundry, launched in 1984 alongside the first Macintosh, turned the computer's low-resolution constraints into a new typographic idiom.
Ghanaian Funeral Poster & BannerThe printed death announcements of southern Ghana, also found elsewhere in West Africa: colour posters, mostly A2, pasted on walls, trees, poles and vehicles, and by the mid-2010s large PVC banners hung at the family house.
- Nigerian Pentecostal Crusade Poster & BillboardThe roadside adverts of Nigeria's Pentecostal and independent churches: billboards, banners and posters on poles, walls and bridges announcing crusades, revivals, conventions and night vigils.
Early Web VernacularThe amateur web of the mid-1990s to early 2000s, when millions of people hand-coded personal homepages on free hosts such as GeoCities with table layouts, browser-default fonts, tiled backgrounds, animated GIFs, MIDI soundtracks, hit counters and ‘under construction’ signs.
- South African Vernacular Design (Ijusi)A post-apartheid design language launched in Durban in 1995 by Garth Walker's Orange Juice Design and its free, experimental magazine Ijusi (isiZulu for 'juice'), which asked 'What makes me South African, and what does that look like?'.
Styles that often use it 34
A characteristic choice: usual in these styles, though not essential.
Hand-Painted Signage & Vernacular LetteringLetters painted by trained sign writers on fascias, windows, walls, vehicles and showcards, from Victorian gold leaf on glass to Mexican rótulos, Indian bazaar boards and Ghanaian barbershop signs.
Cuban Tobacco Lithography (Habilitaciones & Marquillas)The chromolithographed dress of Havana tobacco.
Nirnaya Sagar Devanagari Typography (Bombay Metal Type)Devanagari as Javaji Dadaji's Bombay type foundry (1864) and Nirnaya Sagar Press (1869) cut and printed it: upright metal type with a strong headline, cut with the punch-cutter Ranoji Aru, and enough conjunct and 'Akhand' sorts to set Sanskrit, Vedic accents and Marathi whole.
- Mexican Popular Graphics (Posada)Cheap broadsheets, chapbooks and gazettes sold on the streets of Porfirian Mexico City by the publisher Antonio Vanegas Arroyo and illustrated by Manuel Manilla and José Guadalupe Posada.
Russian Futurist BookThe cheap, small-run books of the Russian Cubo-Futurist poets and painters, from Kruchenykh and Khlebnikov to Goncharova, Larionov and Rozanova.
Czech Poetist Book Design (Devětsil)The book and magazine design of the Czech Devětsil circle, where Karel Teige and his colleagues turned constructivist tools (asymmetry, sans and slab capitals, heavy bars, photomontage) toward Poetism's lyrical celebration of travel, cinema, jazz and the circus.
Tiki Pop (Polynesian Pop)The mainland American fantasy of the South Seas, begun by Don the Beachcomber's Hollywood bar (about 1934) and Trader Vic's in Oakland and at its height in the Polynesian restaurants of the 1950s and 60s.
Jeepney ArtThe decoration of the Philippine jeepney, the shared taxi built from surplus US Army jeeps after 1945 and later from locally fabricated stainless-steel bodies by firms such as Sarao and Francisco Motors.
Story Manga (Postwar Japanese Comics)The black-and-white narrative comic of postwar Japan, from Tezuka Osamu's Shin Takarajima (1947) to the weekly boys' magazines of 1959 and 1968 and the paperbacks that collect them.
Drum Magazine & Sophiatown PhotojournalismThe picture magazine of Black urban Africa in the 1950s.
Zagreb Modernist Graphics (EXAT 51 to Teatar &TD)Zagreb graphic design grown from the EXAT 51 manifesto (1951), which tied abstract art to visual communication.
Push Pin StyleThe eclectic illustrative style of New York's Push Pin Studios, founded by Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser and Edward Sorel.
Situationist Détournement GraphicsGraphics of the Letterist and Situationist Internationals (1956–1972), built on détournement: taking existing words and pictures (comic strips, advertisements, news photographs, city maps, classic texts) and turning them against their source.
Phototype Expressive Typography (Lubalin & U&lc)The display typography of the phototype era, led in New York by Herb Lubalin, his lettering partners John Pistilli, Tom Carnase and Tony DiSpigna, and the International Typeface Corporation.
Angura Theatre PosterThe posters of Japan's underground (angura) theatre from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, made for troupes such as Kara Jūrō's Jōkyō Gekijō and Terayama Shūji's Tenjō Sajiki.
- Swiss Punk / New Wave TypographyA rebellion from inside the Swiss school: Wolfgang Weingart and his Basel students kept the grotesque and the grid but set them in motion with extreme letterspacing, stepped and angled lines, rules and bars, enlarged halftone screens and layered film montage.
La Movida Madrileña GraphicsThe graphics of Madrid's Movida, the post-Franco scene of new-wave bands, fanzines and night life usually dated from the Canito concert of 9 February 1980 and later backed by the city council.
Jamaican Dancehall Signs & Sleeve ArtThe street graphics of Jamaica's dancehall era.
Rave & Acid House GraphicsThe pocket-sized promotional art of acid house, rave and early techno, handed out in record shops and car parks to advertise all-night parties.
Grunge TypographyThe 1990s magazine and music-industry style in which type was layered, eroded, overlapped and cropped until legibility became negotiable.
Matatu & Nganya ArtThe commissioned livery of Kenya's privately owned minibus taxis, at its most elaborate the Nairobi nganya.
- Nollywood Video Jacket & Film PosterThe cover and poster art of Nigeria's home-video boom, from Living in Bondage (1992) on.
Japanese Dense Web DesignThe information-packed look of Japan's big portals, shops, airlines and ministries: three or more narrow columns of boxed modules, crowded with small Japanese text, blue links, tiny thumbnails, dated news lists and rotating ad banners, in bright colours on a white page.
- Tamil Nadu Flex BannersThe digitally printed vinyl boards, locally called flex banners, that fan clubs, party cadres, businesses and families have put up along the roads of Tamil Nadu since about 2000, as flex displaced hand-painted cinema banners and cut-outs over the following decade.
Itasha (Anime Character Car Graphics)Private cars, motorbikes and bicycles that Japanese fans of anime, manga and games cover with their favourite characters, named by the mid-2000s with the self-mocking word itasha, 'painful car'.
Arab Independent Comics (Samandal, TokTok, Lab619, Skefkef)Adult comics magazines edited by Arab artists' collectives since 2007, at times with a ministry grant or an NGO partner: Samandal in Beirut, TokTok in Cairo, Lab619 in Tunis and Skefkef in Casablanca.
Hipster Artisanal RevivalThe trade-mark look of the 2007–2018 craft boom, which dressed new coffee roasters, breweries and stationers as nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century firms.
VaporwaveAn internet-born microgenre and visual aesthetic that remixes the debris of late-20th-century consumer culture (Windows 95 dialogs, classical busts, palm trees, mall interiors, Japanese text, early 3D renders) in pastel pinks and cyans.
- 'Good Morning' Greeting Images (WhatsApp Forward Vernacular)The ready-made greeting pictures that millions of smartphone users, many of them older and new to the internet, forward to family, friends and groups each morning on WhatsApp, above all in India and Brazil.
- Hong Kong Protest Art (Umbrella Movement to the 2019–20 Protests)The graphics of Hong Kong's democracy protests, from the 2014 Umbrella Movement to the national security law of 2020, in two linked media.
Acid Graphics / New UglyA late-2010s club and poster style that updates 1990s rave graphics with modern 3D tools: liquid-chrome and melting lettering, neo-tribal spikes, wireframes, op-art patterns and acid-green palettes on black, mixed with blackletter and stretched grotesques.
- VTuber Avatar and Stream GraphicsThe graphic kit of virtual YouTubers, streamers who perform behind an animated anime-style character instead of their own face.
Newtro (Korean New-Retro)A South Korean branding trend, named 'Going New-tro' in Seoul National University's Trend Korea 2019 (October 2018), in which heritage firms reissue their own postwar to 1990s labels, trademarks and mascots, polished for young buyers.
Post-Binary Typography (Bye Bye Binary and Inclusive French Type)A Franco-Belgian type practice that redesigns written French for gender inclusion inside the word.
Styles that use it now and then 42
An occasional choice in these styles.
- Thai Yantra (Yant) Diagrams1700–present
- Bulaq (Amiriyya) Naskh Book Printing1822–1956
- Cubist Pictorial Space1907–1925
- Shanghai Modern & Yuefenpai1910–1949
- Taishō Roman & Lyrical Illustration1910–1940
- Vorticism & BLAST Typography1914–1920
- Estridentismo (Stridentist) Graphics1921–1927
- Australian Travel Poster (ANTA Era)1929–1959
- Mexican Calendar Chromo (Cromos calendáricos)1930–1970
- Egyptian Painted Film Poster1932–1996
- Nippon Kōbō & Tōhōsha Photo-Propaganda Magazines (NIPPON & FRONT)1933–1945
- American Four-Colour Comic Book (Golden to Bronze Age)1934–1993
- Hebrew Poster Lettering & Early Israeli State Design1934–1974
- Hand-Painted Bollywood Poster1940–1999
- Googie & Atomic Age1945–1965
- Escuela Bruguera (Spanish Humour Comics)1947–1986
- Pakistani Truck Art1947–present
- Bonelli Fumetto (Italian Popular Adventure Comics)1948–present
- Hong Kong Neon & Beiwei Shop-Sign Lettering1950–present
- West African Barbershop & Hair Salon Signs1950–present
- Arab Children's Comic Magazines (Samir to Majid)1956–present
- Shōjo Manga (Japanese Girls' Comics)1958–present
- Tropicália Graphic Design1964–1975
- Black Panther Party Graphics1967–1980
- Grapus (French Militant Graphic Collective)1970–1990
- Kinshasa Popular Painting1970–present
- Turkish Weekly Humour Magazines (Gırgır to Uykusuz)1972–2025
- Roots Reggae Sleeve Art & Rasta Iconography1973–1985
- Ethiopian Revolutionary Poster (Derg Era)1974–1991
- ACT UP & Gran Fury AIDS Activist Graphics1987–1995
- Global Village Coffeehouse1988–2003
- Screenprinted Gig & Alt-Movie Poster1991–present
- Indian Pop-Kitsch Design (Desi Kitsch)1997–present
- Korean Commercial Calligraphy (Kaelligeurapi)1999–present
- Yuru-chara (Japanese Local Mascot Design)2000–present
- Modern Calligraphy and Brush Lettering2005–present
- Risograph & Indie Print Culture2008–present
- Brutalist Web Design2014–present
- Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons (Latin American Food Warning Seals)2016–present
- Illustrated Rom-Com Book Cover (Cartoon Couple Cover)2016–present
- Guochao (China-Chic National Trend)2018–present
- Instagram Slideshow Activism (Social-Justice Infographics)2020–present
It often goes with
Choices that the styles making it make more often than the atlas as a whole.
- Collage & layeringin 51 of 92
- Found & vernacular imageryin 45 of 92
- Horror vacuiin 60 of 92
- Ornamented displayin 46 of 92
- Playful & wittyin 65 of 92
- Photomontagein 33 of 92
Styles that avoid it
Styles that deliberately leave it out.
- Renaissance Book Typographyc. 1460–1600
- Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards1639–present
- Neoclassical Book Typography1757–1830
- Arts & Crafts Movement1860–1920
- Japonisme1860–1910
- Glasgow Style1890–1914
- Nieuwe Kunst (Dutch Art Nouveau)1892–1914
- German Book Art Movement (Buchkunstbewegung)1895–1933
- Vienna Secession1897–1918
- Plakatstil / Sachplakat1905–1920
- London Transport Design1908–1966
- Wendingen & Amsterdam School Typography1918–1932
- AIZ Political Photomontage (Heartfield)1930–1938
- Chinese Modern Woodcut Movement1931–1949
- Penguin Paperback Design (Three Bands to the Marber Grid)1935–1972
- WPA Silkscreen Posters1935–1943
- Literatura de Cordel Woodcut1940–present
- International Typographic Style1950–1975
- Japanese Postwar Modernism1950–1990
- HfG Ulm Systematic Design1953–1968
- Vicente Rojo & Mexican Editorial Modernism1953–1990
- Corporate Identity Modernism1955–1990
- Kinngait (Cape Dorset) Inuit Printmaking1957–present
- British Road Signage (Kinneir & Calvert)1958–present
- Minimalist Graphic Design1965–present
- Munich 1972 Olympic Design (Otl Aicher)1966–1972
- Atelier Populaire (May '68 Screenprint Poster)1968
- ECM Sleeve Aesthetic (Munich)1969–present
- Post-Punk Record Sleeve (Stiff, Factory, 4AD)1977–1990
- Solidarność & Polish Underground Graphics1980–1989
- Madinah Mushaf (King Fahd Complex Qur'an Page)1985–present
- Black Metal Graphics1990–present
- Lucerne Poster Scene (Neubad & Südpol Posters)2007–present
- GOV.UK Design (GDS Style)2012–present
- YouTube Thumbnail Style (the 'YouTube Face')2012–present
- Black Lives Matter Street Murals2020–present
Other choices in typography
- Humanist & Garalde serif
- Transitional serif
- Didone
- Slab serif
- Grotesque & neo-grotesque
- Geometric sans
- Humanist sans
- Rounded sans
- Blackletter
- Script
- Brush & pen calligraphy
- Hand-lettering
- Ornamented display
- Condensed display
- Stencil
- Monospace
- Bitmap & pixel
- Experimental & distorted
- All caps
- Lowercase only
- Type as image
- Flush left, ragged right
- Rotated & vertical setting
- Tight setting
- Wide letterspacing