Stylogenyin the style of Czech Poetist Book Design (Devětsil)

Avant-garde · 1922–1938 · Central Europe

Czech Poetist Book Design (Devětsil)

Also known as Poetism, Devětsil typography, Czech avant-garde book design, Obrazové básně (picture poems)

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. Covers and 'picture poems' set type among postcards, ocean liners and aeroplanes, and in Abeceda (1926) a dancer's body poses as each letter of the alphabet.

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A retro travel poster reading “SOLAR TRIP” combines a large black-and-white image of a smiling woman in a swimsuit with a coastal town, a vintage bus on a winding seaside road, and divers above the water. Red diagonal shapes, blue stripes and sea, a yellow sun, and rows of dots decorate the cream background.
AI-generated by Stylogeny from the style’s design choices. Not a real or historical work.

01

How it works

  • Treat the cover or page as a picture poem: assemble type, bars, arrows and found photographs into one lyrical composition.
  • Borrow constructivist asymmetry, sans and slab capitals and red-and-black printing, but aim for delight rather than agitation.
  • Use found images of modern travel and leisure (ocean liners, aeroplanes, ports, film stars, postcards) as the emotional content.
  • Let letters double as figures: enlarge single glyphs and pair them with photographs of bodies, objects or signals.
  • Keep the ground open and white so the montage reads as an airy, rhythmic arrangement rather than a crowded collage.

Prague and Brno, around the Devětsil group (founded 1920) and its theorist Karel Teige

02

Its design choices

From Stylogeny’s vocabulary of design choices: defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

Layout & composition
Space & hierarchy
Typography
Colour
Form & shape
Surface & texture
Ornament
Imagery
Medium & production
Tone & intent
Avoids
Central symmetry, Classical text block, Floral & vegetal, Abundant decoration, Blackletter, Painterly illustration, Authoritative & institutional

Palette

  • #f2ebdc
  • #161514
  • #d22f22
  • #2459a6
  • #e9b52c

Typefaces

  • Jobbing grotesque capitals from Prague print shops

  • Egyptienne slab-serif display capitals

  • Teige's constructed letter compositions in Abeceda

    1926

Known for

  • Karel Teige & Vítězslav Nezval, Abeceda (1926), with Milča Mayerová's dance photographed by Karel Paspa

  • Karel Teige, typography for Jaroslav Seifert's Na vlnách TSF

    1925

  • ReD (Revue Devětsilu, 1927–1931), edited and designed by Karel Teige

  • Otakar Mrkvička, photomontage cover for Jaroslav Seifert's Samá láska

    1923

  • Jindřich Štyrský and Toyen, book covers for Prague publishers

    late 1920s–1930s

  • Pásmo, magazine of the Brno Devětsil group

03

Make something in this style

Say what you need, and Stylogeny’s image studio draws it from Czech Poetist Book Design (Devětsil)’s design choices and checks it against them. It takes about a minute, and you get a link to share.

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04

Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

Before it

The style it grew out of, and the styles it borrowed from.

This styleCzech Poetist Book Design (Devětsil)1922–1938 · Central Europe

After it

The styles that grew out of it.

No later style in the atlas grew out of it yet.

Alike in its design choices

Styles that make many of the same choices, related or not, besides those above.

05

Real works

Artefacts in museums, libraries and archives that show the style, linked at their source.

06

Sources

  1. Eric Dluhosch & Rostislav Švácha (eds.), Karel Teige/1900–1951: L'Enfant Terrible of the Czech Modernist Avant-Garde (MIT Press, 1999)
  2. Wikipedia, 'Devětsil' and 'Karel Teige'
  3. Museum of Czech Literature, permanent exhibition entry 'Samá láska (Sheer Love)' (expozice.muzeumliteratury.cz)

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