Form & shape · Curvilinear
Whiplash line
Sinuous, energetic S-curves.
A design choice in Stylogeny’s vocabulary, under form & shape: what is the shape language?
- styles make it
- 34
- as a defining choice
- 3
- as a usual one
- 9
- now and then
- 22
- avoid it
- 22
Styles defined by it 3
For these styles it is one of the choices that make the style.
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.
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.
Styles that often use it 9
A characteristic choice: usual in these styles, though not essential.
- Ottoman Tughra & Dîvânî Chancery CalligraphyThe Ottoman sultan's calligraphic monogram and the chancery hand written beneath it.
- Persian Nastaʿlīq Calligraphy (Qiṭʿa, Chalipa and Siyāh-mashq)The 'hanging' script of Persian poetry and an art of the single sheet.
- Kōwhaiwhai & Toi Māori DesignToi Māori, the visual arts of the tangata whenua of Aotearoa, of which kōwhaiwhai, the painted scroll patterns of paddles and meeting-house rafters, is the most graphic strand.
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.
Uli & Nsibidi Line and Sign TraditionTwo linked graphic languages of southeastern Nigeria.
Arabic CalligraffitiArabic letters sprayed, rolled and brushed at the scale of buildings.
Modern Calligraphy and Brush LetteringThe loose pointed-pen and brush-pen script of wedding stationery and the 2010s craft boom.
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.
- Woman, Life, Freedom Protest Graphics (Iran and the Diaspora)Posters and digital graphics made in Iran and the diaspora after Mahsa (Jina) Amini died in morality-police custody in September 2022.
Styles that use it now and then 22
An occasional choice in these styles.
- Chinese Calligraphy & Seal Carving (Shufa & Zhuanke)c. 0–present
- Maghrebi Script (Maghribi Calligraphy of al-Andalus and North Africa)c. 900–present
- Persian Miniature (Ilkhanid, Timurid and Safavid Book Painting)c. 1300–1700
- Zoomorphic & Figural Calligraphy (Islamic Calligrams)1500–present
- Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints1670–1900
- Kalighat Pat & Battala Bazaar Prints1830–1930
- Belle Époque Lithographic Poster1866–1914
- Nieuwe Kunst (Dutch Art Nouveau)1892–1914
- German Book Art Movement (Buchkunstbewegung)1895–1933
- Simplicissimus Satirical Style (Munich)1896–1944
- Bezalel School1906–1929
- Taishō Roman & Lyrical Illustration1910–1940
- Amazonian Boat Lettering (Abridores de Letras)1925–present
- Filipino Komiks1929–1999
- Push Pin Style1954–1980
- Chinese National-Style Animation (Shanghai Animation Film Studio)1956–1989
- Polish Cold War Neon (PRL Neonisation)1956–1981
- Phototype Expressive Typography (Lubalin & U&lc)1962–1985
- Tropicália Graphic Design1964–1975
- Black Metal Graphics1990–present
- Korean Commercial Calligraphy (Kaelligeurapi)1999–present
- Solarpunk2014–present
It often goes with
Choices that the styles making it make more often than the atlas as a whole.
- Biomorphic curvesin 25 of 34
- Floral & vegetalin 22 of 34
- Organic flowin 15 of 34
- Romantic & sensualin 19 of 34
- Pen, brush & inkin 23 of 34
- Restrained accentsin 23 of 34
Styles that avoid it
Styles that deliberately leave it out.
- Amazigh Sign System & Tifinaghc. 0–present
- Andean Woven Graphic Systemsc. 600–present
- Square Kufic (Bannāʾī)c. 1100–present
- Diné (Navajo) Weaving Design1700–present
- Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics (Munthe & Karelianism)1880–1922
- Vienna Secession1897–1918
- Mir iskusstva Book Art1898–1927
- Expressionist Woodcut Graphics1905–1925
- Plakatstil / Sachplakat1905–1920
- Art Deco1910–1939
- Vorticism & BLAST Typography1914–1920
- De Stijl1917–1931
- Russian Constructivism1917–1934
- Wendingen & Amsterdam School Typography1918–1932
- Estridentismo (Stridentist) Graphics1921–1927
- Italian Fascist Graphics (Romanità & Exhibition Photomontage)1921–1943
- Hebrew Poster Lettering & Early Israeli State Design1934–1974
- WPA Silkscreen Posters1935–1943
- Spanish Civil War Poster1936–1939
- Ndebele Geometric Painting1940–present
- Bitmap & Pixel Graphics1977–1995
- Low Poly Illustration2012–present