Map

The web

Every style on one map, by what it is made of or by how it gets an idea across. Pick a choice and its styles gather; add a second and only the styles that combine them stay, or none, and you have found an open combination. Pick a style to see it up close, in its own colours and typefaces. Grow plays the atlas through time.

Drag to move, scroll or pinch to zoom. Shift-click a second choice to combine.

Loading the map…

The web as a list

The same threads as the map: each group, its members and the styles tied to them.

By design choice: 10 facets, 145 choices

Layout & composition

How is the picture plane organised?

Space & hierarchy

How is attention distributed?

Typography

What do the letters look like, and how are they set?

Colour

What is the colour strategy?

Form & shape

What is the shape language?

Surface & texture

What is the material finish?

Ornament

How much decoration, and of what kind?

Imagery

What kind of pictures, if any?

Medium & production

What technology shaped it?

Tone & intent

What should the work make people feel or do?

By idea: 8 aims, 55 devices

Devices are recorded for 30 of 459 styles so far; more are added as they are researched.

Direct attention

Where does the eye land first, and where does it go next?

Isolation: One subject alone in an empty field (often small in a vast one), so the emptiness itself means something: alone, precious, calm. Known in Plakatstil / Sachplakat , Japanese Postwar Modernism , Pop Art Graphics .
Odd one out: One of a set of like things differs from the rest in direction, form or behaviour.
Single colour accent: A single scene drained of colour except for one element. Known in Stencil Street Art .
Spotlight: Light picks the subject out of darkness; what is lit matters, the dark holds mystery.
Selective focus: The subject is sharp and everything around it is blurred.
Bold crop: The frame slices through the subject off-centre, so the viewer completes it and senses a world beyond. Known in Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints , Belle Époque Lithographic Poster .
Leading lines: Lines, edges, roads or perspective converge on the point that matters. Known in Art Deco .
Look and point: A figure’s gaze or gesture, or a drawn arrow, points at something else in the picture, and the viewer’s eye follows. Known in YouTube Thumbnail Style (the 'YouTube Face') , Bauhaus .
Frame within a frame: A window, doorway, cut-out or shape inside the picture frames the subject a second time. Known in Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints , Angura Theatre Poster .
Size by rank: The most important figure is drawn largest, whatever its real size. Known in Hand-Painted Bollywood Poster , Ghanaian Movie Poster , Russian Constructivism , Fante Asafo Flags (Frankaa) .

Leave a gap

What does the viewer complete in their own mind?

Closure: An incomplete shape that the mind completes: the viewer draws the missing parts. Known in Saul and Elaine Bass Conceptual Film Graphics .
Figure–ground reversal: Positive and negative shapes share one contour, giving two equal readings that flip back and forth.
Hidden image: The first reading is complete on its own; a smaller second image is found later, in negative space or a detail.
Silhouette: A figure or object reduced to its solid outline; the viewer supplies everything inside it. Known in Saul and Elaine Bass Conceptual Film Graphics , Cuban Revolutionary Poster (OSPAAAL & ICAIC) , Isotype Pictorial Statistics , Plakatstil / Sachplakat , Japanese Postwar Modernism , Belle Époque Lithographic Poster , American Mid-Century Modernism .
Telling absence: The place where the key element should be is shown empty; the gap says it. Known in Hipgnosis Photographic Concept Sleeve .
Part for the whole: A detail stands for something outside the frame: a hand for the worker, a shoe for the runner. Known in Saul and Elaine Bass Conceptual Film Graphics , American Mid-Century Modernism .
Faces in things: Objects or shapes arranged so that the viewer sees a face in them.
Using the setting: A real surface or object where the work is placed becomes part of the picture: a drainpipe as a rope, a crack as a fault line. Known in Stencil Street Art .

Join two things

Which two things, brought together, make the idea?

Juxtaposition: Two different subjects side by side, so the viewer compares them: alike or opposite. Known in Angura Theatre Poster , Surrealist Graphics , ACT UP & Gran Fury AIDS Activist Graphics , Isotype Pictorial Statistics , YouTube Thumbnail Style (the 'YouTube Face') .
Fusion: Parts of two things joined into one object, both still recognisable. Known in Polish Poster School , Surrealist Graphics , Cuban Revolutionary Poster (OSPAAAL & ICAIC) , Dada , Afrobeat Sleeve Art , Generative-AI Image Aesthetic .
Replacement: Only one thing is shown, in the place or role of another that the setting implies. Known in Stencil Street Art , Polish Poster School .
Visual pun: One shape, barely changed, reads as two different things; nothing is added or merged. Known in American Mid-Century Modernism , Surrealist Graphics .
Composite figure: A figure built out of many smaller objects that belong to its story.
Role reversal: Two parties swap their usual roles: the hunted hunts, the tool uses its owner. Known in Stencil Street Art .
Revealing shadow: A shadow or reflection shows what the subject really is, was or will become.
Shapes as actors: Abstract shapes stand for forces or parties and act out their relation: one pierces, crowds, lifts or shelters another. Known in Russian Constructivism .

Bend reality

Which rule of the real world does the image break, and why?

Exaggeration: Size or effect pushed far beyond reality to make the point. Known in YouTube Thumbnail Style (the 'YouTube Face') , Ghanaian Movie Poster .
Impossible scene: A scene that cannot exist, presented calmly as if it could. Known in Surrealist Graphics , Hipgnosis Photographic Concept Sleeve , Generative-AI Image Aesthetic , Corporate Memphis .
Personification: Objects, animals or forces given faces, bodies or human behaviour.
Forced perspective: Near and far things line up so they seem to touch or interact at the same scale.
Trompe-l’œil: The flat image pretends to be a real object on its surface: torn paper, tape, a fold, a drop.
Breaking the frame: A figure steps, reaches or spills out of its own frame, panel or border.
X-ray view: The inside of something shown through its surface: what it is made of, swallows or hides.
Accumulation: Many of one thing, where the count itself is the message. Known in Pop Art Graphics , Isotype Pictorial Statistics .

Address the viewer

What relationship does the image set up with the person looking?

Eye contact: A figure looks (or points) straight out of the picture at the viewer, demanding a response. Known in YouTube Thumbnail Style (the 'YouTube Face') .
Power angle: Seen from below, a subject towers and looks heroic; seen from above, it looks small or vulnerable. Known in Russian Constructivism , Art Deco .
Looking ahead: A figure looks up and out of the frame, past the viewer, toward something unseen. Known in Stencil Street Art .
Intimate close-up: The subject fills the frame at touching distance. It is about distance, not composition. Known in International Typographic Style , Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints .
Point of view: The viewer sees the scene through a participant’s eyes: their hands, their view.
Telling gesture: One expressive pose or gesture carries the emotion: a raised fist, a flexed arm, an embrace. Known in Russian Constructivism , Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints , Belle Époque Lithographic Poster , Corporate Memphis .

Words and pictures

How do the words and the picture work on each other?

Word picture: Letters shaped or arranged so that the word shows what it means. Known in Polish Poster School , Italian Futurism .
Rebus: A picture read aloud as a word or sound.
Visual equation: Words or images joined by signs (=, +, ≠, →), so the relation between them is the message. Known in ACT UP & Gran Fury AIDS Activist Graphics , Italian Futurism .
Typographic voice: Size, weight and placement of letters perform how the words sound: shouted, whispered, broken. Known in Russian Constructivism , Dada , Italian Futurism , Pop Art Graphics , Australian Poster Collective Screenprints , Bauhaus .
Words that turn the picture: A line of text contradicts or overturns what the picture seems to say. Known in ACT UP & Gran Fury AIDS Activist Graphics , Situationist Détournement Graphics , Surrealist Graphics .
Literal saying: A figure of speech or proverb drawn literally. Known in Fante Asafo Flags (Frankaa) , Hipgnosis Photographic Concept Sleeve , Australian Poster Collective Screenprints .

Borrow and quote

Which existing image, format or sign does it borrow, and what meaning comes with it?

Quoting a famous image: One specific, widely known artwork or icon restaged, so its meaning comes along and is shifted. Known in Dada , Pop Art Graphics , Cuban Revolutionary Poster (OSPAAAL & ICAIC) , Stencil Street Art .
Borrowed format: The message dressed as another kind of artefact: a label, a ticket, a manual, a warning sign, a floppy disk. Known in Pop Art Graphics , ACT UP & Gran Fury AIDS Activist Graphics , Australian Poster Collective Screenprints .
Détournement: An existing ad, logo or image hijacked and turned against its own message. Known in ACT UP & Gran Fury AIDS Activist Graphics , Situationist Détournement Graphics , Dada .
Common symbol: A widely known sign (a dove, a heart, a fist, a skull) carries the idea at a glance. Known in Japanese Postwar Modernism , Angura Theatre Poster , Cuban Revolutionary Poster (OSPAAAL & ICAIC) , ACT UP & Gran Fury AIDS Activist Graphics , Fante Asafo Flags (Frankaa) .

Time and change

How does a still image show time passing, or about to pass?

Steps and panels: The same subject at different moments: panels, steps or a before-and-after pair. Known in Isotype Pictorial Statistics , YouTube Thumbnail Style (the 'YouTube Face') , Afrobeat Sleeve Art .
Movement in a still: Blur, repeated outlines or speed lines show movement within one image. Known in Italian Futurism .
The whole story in one picture: Several moments or characters of one story gathered into a single image, without panels. Known in Hand-Painted Bollywood Poster , Ghanaian Movie Poster , Afrobeat Sleeve Art .
Metamorphosis: One thing turns into another across the image, step by step. Known in Saul and Elaine Bass Conceptual Film Graphics .
The moment before: The instant just before something happens; the viewer imagines what follows. Known in International Typographic Style .