Ornament · Motif
Floral & vegetal
Leaves, vines, flowers, acanthus.
A design choice in Stylogeny’s vocabulary, under ornament: how much decoration, and of what kind?
- styles make it
- 94
- as a defining choice
- 11
- as a usual one
- 32
- now and then
- 51
- avoid it
- 52
Styles defined by it 11
For these styles it is one of the choices that make the style.
Persian Miniature (Ilkhanid, Timurid and Safavid Book Painting)The court book painting of Iran and Timurid Herat, formed in Mongol Tabriz from Islamic, Byzantine and Chinese models: from Rashid al-Din's Jamiʿ al-tawarikh (1314) and the Great Mongol Shahnama to Behzad's Herat and the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp, ending in the album pages of Safavid Isfahan.
Rinpa & Saga-bonA Kyoto school of decorative design that revived the poetry and court painting of the Heian period, begun around 1600 by the calligrapher Hon'ami Kōetsu and the painter Tawaraya Sōtatsu and carried on less by teaching than by admiration across generations: Ogata Kōrin, Sakai Hōitsu, Kamisaka Sekka.
Arts & Crafts MovementA British-led reform movement that answered industrial shoddiness with honest handcraft, medieval models and the ideal of joy in labour.
Art NouveauAn international 'new art' that sought a modern style free of historical revival, drawing its forms from plant growth and the female figure.
Fileteado PorteñoA Buenos Aires tradition of ornamental brush painting that began around 1900 on the grey-painted trade carts of Italian immigrant coachbuilders and spread to trucks, colectivo buses, shop signs and gallery panels.
- Glasgow StyleGlasgow's distinctive answer to Art Nouveau, formed around Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Margaret and Frances Macdonald and Herbert MacNair at the Glasgow School of Art.
Nieuwe Kunst (Dutch Art Nouveau)The Dutch branch of Art Nouveau, seen mostly in book covers, vignettes and posters.
- Pakistani Truck ArtThe total decoration of Pakistan's trucks and buses, which grew from company marks and saints' portraits painted in the late 1940s into a workshop art in which painters, metalworkers, woodcarvers and reflective-tape specialists collaborate on each vehicle.
Taiwan Floral Cloth (Huabu)Cheap printed cotton covered edge to edge in large, full-blown peonies with lotuses, phoenixes, dragons, mandarin ducks, small florets and auspicious emblems on saturated vermilion, bright pink or sky-blue grounds.
Shōjo Manga (Japanese Girls' Comics)The look of Japan's girls' comics (strictly a readership, not a style), which Takahashi Macoto fixed in 1958 from the lyrical illustration (jojōga) of Nakahara Jun'ichi and the Year 24 Group remade in the 1970s.
SolarpunkHopeful eco-futurist imagery born online.
Styles that often use it 32
A characteristic choice: usual in these styles, though not essential.
Chinese Paper-Cut (Jianzhi)China's folk art of cut paper, made mostly by rural women and passed from mother to daughter, and by town guilds and workshops.
Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic TraditionA visual system shared across the Islamic world in which proportioned calligraphy, compass-and-straightedge geometry and the vegetal arabesque carry meaning and beauty in place of figurative imagery.
Armenian Manuscript IlluminationThe illuminated books of the Armenian Church, from the Gospel of Queen Mlke (c. 862) and the Etchmiadzin Gospels (989) to the last manuscripts around 1800.
Kamon (Japanese Family Crests)Japan'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.
Nianhua & Chinese Folk PrintWoodblock pictures bought each New Year and pasted on doors, walls and kitchen shrines to invite luck and ward off harm: paired door gods, plump babies with carp, the Kitchen God, opera scenes and auspicious rebuses.
Vyaz (Ornamental Slavonic Lettering)Cyrillic letters bound into one even band of ornament.
- Ottoman Tughra & Dîvânî Chancery CalligraphyThe Ottoman sultan's calligraphic monogram and the chancery hand written beneath it.
Mithila (Madhubani) PaintingWomen's ritual wall and floor painting from Mithila in north Bihar and Nepal's Terai, attested from at least the 14th century, seen by W.
- Persian Nastaʿlīq Calligraphy (Qiṭʿa, Chalipa and Siyāh-mashq)The 'hanging' script of Persian poetry and an art of the single sheet.
Renaissance Book TypographyThe printed book as shaped by humanist Italy and France: roman and italic types modelled on humanist handwriting, a single justified text block set in harmonious proportions within generous margins, and woodcut initials, borders and printer's devices as the only ornament.
- Javanese Wayang Kulit (Tatah Sungging)The visual language of Javanese shadow puppets: flat figures cut from buffalo parchment, with head and legs in profile, shoulders turned to the front and long jointed arms worked by horn rods.
Batik Pattern TraditionThe Javanese wax-resist textile tradition in which hot wax is drawn with a canting or stamped with a copper cap, then dyed in successive baths to build layered all-over patterns.
- Ten Bamboo Studio Colour Woodblock (Douban & Gonghua)A kind of colour woodblock printing begun in late-Ming Nanjing, made so that a print looks like a brush painting.
Chaekgeori & Minhwa Screen PaintingKorean painted folding screens of the late Joseon period.
Cuban Tobacco Lithography (Habilitaciones & Marquillas)The chromolithographed dress of Havana tobacco.
JaponismeThe Western absorption of Japanese woodblock prints, textiles and crafts after Japan reopened to trade in the 1850s.
Kanga (Swahili Message Cloth)Printed cotton wraps worn by women of the Swahili coast and its hinterland since the late nineteenth century, bought in pairs.
Mir iskusstva Book ArtThe graphic idiom of the St Petersburg World of Art circle (journal 1898–1904, exhibitions until Paris 1927) and the book artists around it.
- Senegalese Sufi Devotional Imagery (Souwère Glass Painting and Amadou Bamba Portraits)The devotional imagery of Senegal's Sufi brotherhoods, above all the Mourides: reverse paintings on glass (souwère), made in Senegal's cities since about 1900, and the murals, banners, prints and photocopies that multiply one 1913 photograph of Sheikh Amadou Bamba across Dakar and Touba.
- Bezalel SchoolThe house style of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts, opened in Jerusalem by Boris Schatz in 1906 with E.
Shanghai Modern & YuefenpaiThe commercial art of treaty-port Shanghai.
- Taishō Roman & Lyrical IllustrationThe 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.
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.
Finnish Bold Print (Marimekko Modernism)The printed-cotton modernism of Marimekko, founded in Helsinki in 1951 by Armi and Viljo Ratia out of Viljo's printing firm Printex.
Tropicália Graphic DesignThe graphic language of Brazil's Tropicália, foreshadowed by Rogério Duarte's poster for Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol (1964), which already devours Ulm modernism, and set by his 1968 covers for Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil.
Psychedelic PosterThe concert-poster language of the 1960s counterculture, born in San Francisco's Fillmore and Avalon ballrooms and echoed in London's underground press.
Soviet Central Asian Ornamental ModernismThe monumental art of Soviet Central Asia after the 1966 Tashkent earthquake: a strand of Socialist Realism mixed with Islamic and national ornament.
- Madinah Mushaf (King Fahd Complex Qur'an Page)One fixed page for the Qur'an across much of the Muslim world: Uthman Taha's fully vowelled Naskh in fifteen justified lines, written so that every page ends at the end of a verse (the late Ottoman âyet-berkenar layout), inside a floral frame, with sura titles in framed cartouches and verse numbers in small round medallions.
SuperflatThe flat, saturated, cartoon-crowded look that Takashi Murakami named in his exhibition and manifesto Superflat (Tokyo, 2000; US tour 2001).
Modern Calligraphy and Brush LetteringThe loose pointed-pen and brush-pen script of wedding stationery and the 2010s craft boom.
- '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.
Guochao (China-Chic National Trend)A Chinese branding and fashion trend, usually dated from Li-Ning's 'China Li-Ning' show at New York Fashion Week in February 2018, that redraws heritage motifs as finishes for sneakers, apparel, cosmetics and museum merchandise.
Styles that use it now and then 51
An occasional choice in these styles.
- Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic & Register Compositionc. 0–394
- Hebrew Micrographyc. 895–present
- Maghrebi Script (Maghribi Calligraphy of al-Andalus and North Africa)c. 900–present
- European Heraldryc. 1140–present
- Gothic Blackletter & Fraktur Traditionc. 1180–present
- Mongol Bichig Calligraphy & Ugalz Ornamentc. 1204–present
- Kōwhaiwhai & Toi Māori Design1500–present
- Zoomorphic & Figural Calligraphy (Islamic Calligrams)1500–present
- Emblem Book (Motto, Picture & Epigram)1531–1724
- Đông Hồ & Hàng Trống Folk Prints1600–present
- Sápmi Graphic Identity (Duodji & Gákti Colour Code)1600–present
- Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards1639–present
- Lubok Popular Print1650–1920
- Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints1670–1900
- Burmese Parabaik Painting (Konbaung Folding Books)1752–1885
- Victorian Letterpress & Wood Type1810–1900
- Bulaq (Amiriyya) Naskh Book Printing1822–1956
- Urdu Katib Lithography1837–present
- Persian Popular Narrative (Lithographs & Coffeehouse Painting)1843–2012
- Celtic Revival Illumination & Lettering1861–1951
- Belle Époque Lithographic Poster1866–1914
- Indian Calendar & Bazaar Art1878–present
- Spanish Bullfight Poster (Cartel Taurino)1879–present
- African Wax & Fancy Print1880–present
- Mexican Popular Graphics (Posada)1880–1917
- German Book Art Movement (Buchkunstbewegung)1895–1933
- Vienna Secession1897–1918
- Santiniketan & Bengal School Graphics1905–1954
- Russian Futurist Book1910–1920
- Harlem Renaissance Graphic Art1925–1940
- Hebrew Poster Lettering & Early Israeli State Design1934–1974
- Story Manga (Postwar Japanese Comics)1947–present
- Cairo–Beirut Arab Modernist Book & Periodical Design1952–1990
- Push Pin Style1954–1980
- Rorke's Drift Linocut1962–1982
- Tingatinga Painting1968–present
- Kawaii Design1970–present
- Australian Poster Collective Screenprints1971–1994
- Lebanese Civil War Party Poster1975–1990
- Iranian Revolutionary & Sacred Defence Poster1978–1988
- Pardhan Gond Painting (Jangarh Kalam)1981–present
- Global Village Coffeehouse1988–2003
- Black Metal Graphics1990–present
- Indian Pop-Kitsch Design (Desi Kitsch)1997–present
- Korean Commercial Calligraphy (Kaelligeurapi)1999–present
- Contemporary Chinese Book Design ('Most Beautiful Books of China')2003–present
- Neo-Andean Architecture (Cholets)2005–present
- Hong Kong Protest Art (Umbrella Movement to the 2019–20 Protests)2014–2020
- Corporate Memphis2017–present
- Post-Binary Typography (Bye Bye Binary and Inclusive French Type)2018–present
- Ukrainian Wartime Graphics (Saint Javelin, War Stamps and Be Brave Like Ukraine)2022–present
It often goes with
Choices that the styles making it make more often than the atlas as a whole.
- Borders & framesin 68 of 94
- Biomorphic curvesin 59 of 94
- Abundant decorationin 50 of 94
- Framed panelsin 73 of 94
- Spiritual & sacredin 55 of 94
- Brush & pen calligraphyin 46 of 94
Styles that avoid it
Styles that deliberately leave it out.
- Amazigh Sign System & Tifinaghc. 0–present
- Square Kufic (Bannāʾī)c. 1100–present
- Northwest Coast Formline Design1700–present
- Simplicissimus Satirical Style (Munich)1896–1944
- Expressionist Woodcut Graphics1905–1925
- Plakatstil / Sachplakat1905–1920
- London Transport Design1908–1966
- Italian Futurism1909–1944
- Hungarian Revolutionary Poster1912–1919
- Vorticism & BLAST Typography1914–1920
- De Stijl1917–1931
- Russian Constructivism1917–1934
- Bauhaus1919–1933
- Estridentismo (Stridentist) Graphics1921–1927
- Czech Poetist Book Design (Devětsil)1922–1938
- Leningrad Avant-Garde Picture Book1922–1936
- Mavo1923–1925
- Streamline Moderne1930–1945
- Milanese Industrial Modernism (Olivetti, Pirelli, Studio Boggeri)1933–1975
- Penguin Paperback Design (Three Bands to the Marber Grid)1935–1972
- Spanish Civil War Poster1936–1939
- American Mid-Century Modernism1940–1970
- Googie & Atomic Age1945–1965
- Machine-Age Simplified Arabic Type1947–present
- International Typographic Style1950–1975
- Brazilian Concrete Design1951–1975
- West German Conceptual Film & Culture Poster (Hillmann and Rambow)1953–1990
- Pop Art Graphics1955–1975
- Blue Note Jazz Sleeve Modernism1956–1967
- Situationist Détournement Graphics1956–1972
- British Road Signage (Kinneir & Calvert)1958–present
- Di Tella Graphic Design (Instituto Torcuato Di Tella)1960–1970
- Op Art Graphics1960–1975
- Fluxus Graphics (Maciunas)1962–1978
- Total Design & Dutch Functionalism1963–1990
- Mexico 68 Olympic & Metro Identity1966–1970
- Black Panther Party Graphics1967–1980
- Swiss Punk / New Wave Typography1968–1990
- Roman-like Thai Typography (modern loopless Thai)1973–present
- Punk & DIY Zine1976–1986
- Memphis Design1981–1988
- Emigre & Early Digital Type1984–1998
- Out-of-Square Hangul Typography1985–present
- Techno-Futurist Graphics1986–2002
- ACT UP & Gran Fury AIDS Activist Graphics1987–1995
- Y2K Futurism1997–2005
- Fantasy User Interface (FUI) & Sci-Fi HUD1999–present
- Neo-Swiss Revival2005–present
- Seoul Independent Graphic Design (Small-Studio Scene)2005–present
- Generative & Dynamic Identities2007–present
- Lucerne Poster Scene (Neubad & Südpol Posters)2007–present
- Kinetic Typography & Variable Type2016–present