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Ornament · Motif

Emblems & badges

Seals, crests, roundels and badges.

A design choice in Stylogeny’s vocabulary, under ornament: how much decoration, and of what kind?

styles make it: 150
as a defining choice: 25
as a usual one: 51
now and then: 74
avoid it: 4

Styles defined by it 25

For these styles it is one of the choices that make the style.

Chinese Calligraphy & Seal Carving (Shufa & Zhuanke)c. 0–present · East AsiaThe written art of China and the root of East Asian lettering.
Kamon (Japanese Family Crests)c. 1100–present · East AsiaJapan's family crests: small one-colour emblems that reduce a plant, animal, tool or pattern to a flat silhouette, mirrored or repeated around a centre, often ringed and drawn with compass and brush.
European Heraldryc. 1140–present · Western Europe, Central Europe, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Eastern EuropeThe hereditary identifying devices of medieval Europe's knights and seals, codified into a rule-bound grammar still used by states, cities, churches, universities and families.
Mongol Bichig Calligraphy & Ugalz Ornamentc. 1204–present · East AsiaMongolia's classical script and the auspicious ornament that frames it on state, Buddhist and household objects.
Ottoman Tughra & Dîvânî Chancery Calligraphyc. 1324–present · Middle East & North Africa, Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, South AsiaThe Ottoman sultan's calligraphic monogram and the chancery hand written beneath it.
Cuban Tobacco Lithography (Habilitaciones & Marquillas)1845–present · Latin America & CaribbeanThe chromolithographed dress of Havana tobacco.
London Transport Design1908–1966 · Western EuropeThe design programme Frank Pick built for London's Underground from 1908 and the London Passenger Transport Board (1933–40), continued by Harold Hutchison (1947–66).
Italian Fascist Graphics (Romanità & Exhibition Photomontage)1921–1943 · Southern EuropeThe visual language of Italian Fascism, which turned modernist means to a cult of Rome and of the Duce.
Estado Novo Folk Modernism (SPN)1933–1949 · Southern EuropeThe official image of Salazar's Estado Novo, shaped by António Ferro's Secretariado de Propaganda Nacional (SPN, 1933; SNI from 1944).
Hebrew Poster Lettering & Early Israeli State Design1934–1974 · Middle East & North AfricaThe commercial and state graphics of the Jewish community in Mandate Palestine and early Israel, made in Tel Aviv from 1934 by designers who had trained in Berlin and Vienna: Franz Krausz, Otte Wallish and the Shamir brothers.
Penguin Paperback Design (Three Bands to the Marber Grid)1935–1972 · Western EuropeThe cover system of Penguin Books, London, from 1935 until Germano Facetti left in 1972.
Baybayin Revival Graphics1963–present · Southeast Asia, North AmericaThe revival of baybayin, the precolonial Tagalog abugida, as a mark of Filipino identity.
Palestinian Resistance Poster1965–1993 · Middle East & North AfricaThe poster culture of the Palestinian national movement after 1965, issued by the PLO and its factions from Beirut and other Arab capitals for refugee camps, homes and solidarity audiences abroad.
Ultras Graphics (Curva Banners and Tifo)1968–present · Southern Europe, Western Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East & North Africa, Southeast Asia, North AmericaThe graphic language of Italy's organised football supporters, the ultras, from the late 1960s, and of the groups that copied them across Europe, North Africa and beyond.
Lebanese Civil War Party Poster1975–1990 · Middle East & North AfricaThe posters that some twenty parties and militias pasted on the walls of Beirut and other towns between 1975 and 1990, marking each quarter as one faction's territory.
South African Resistance Poster1978–1994 · Sub-Saharan AfricaThe posters of the struggle against apartheid, from the exiled Medu Art Ensemble in Gaborone to the community workshops that served the United Democratic Front and the unions in the 1980s.
NSK Retro-Avant-Garde1980–present · Central Europe, Southern EuropeThe retro-avant-garde of Neue Slowenische Kunst, founded in Ljubljana in 1984 by Laibach, IRWIN and the Scipion Nasice Sisters Theatre, with Novi kolektivizem as its design department.
Techno-Futurist Graphics1986–2002 · Western Europe, East AsiaElectronic-music and video-game graphics of the late 1980s and 1990s that turned corporate modernism into a sci-fi consumer fantasy.
Rave & Acid House Graphics1988–2000 · Western EuropeThe pocket-sized promotional art of acid house, rave and early techno, handed out in record shops and car parks to advertise all-night parties.
Hype Streetwear Graphics (Box Logo to Quotation Marks)1993–present · North America, East Asia, Southern Europe, Western Europe, Global / networkedThe logo-led graphics of streetwear since the 1990s: one wordmark or emblem on a plain T-shirt, hoodie or object is the product.
Hipster Artisanal Revival2007–2018 · North America, Global / networkedThe trade-mark look of the 2007–2018 craft boom, which dressed new coffee roasters, breweries and stationers as nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century firms.
Latin American Feminist Protest Graphics (Ni Una Menos and the Green Wave)2015–present · Latin America & CaribbeanThe graphics of Latin America's feminist tide, a mass movement since Ni Una Menos (Buenos Aires, 3 June 2015) and the 2018 'marea verde' for legal abortion, though its scarf dates from 2003.
Front-of-Pack Warning Octagons (Latin American Food Warning Seals)2016–present · Latin America & CaribbeanA state warning system stacked on commercial food packs.
Newtro (Korean New-Retro)2017–present · East AsiaA 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.
Extinction Rebellion Graphics2018–present · Western Europe, Global / networkedThe visual identity of Extinction Rebellion, the climate movement founded in Stroud in 2018, built by its volunteer Art Group as a free kit anyone may print.

Styles that often use it 51

A characteristic choice: usual in these styles, though not essential.

Styles that use it now and then 74

An occasional choice in these styles.

It often goes with

Choices that the styles making it make more often than the atlas as a whole.

Communal & popularin 102 of 150
Agitational & persuasivein 70 of 150
Authoritative & institutionalin 67 of 150
Naturalistic depictionin 73 of 150
Single focal pointin 115 of 150
All capsin 86 of 150

Styles that avoid it

Styles that deliberately leave it out.

Other choices in ornament