{ "contract": "aesthetary.record/1.0", "record_spec": "1.1.0", "semantics": { "vocabulary": "aesthetary.public-evidence/1.0", "definitions": "vocabulary.json" }, "slug": "new-wave-typography", "name": "New Wave Typography", "identity": { "definition": { "state": "resolved", "text": "New Wave (also called Swiss Punk) is an approach to typography credited to Wolfgang Weingart at the Basel School of Design in the early 1970s, which broke the mould of classical Swiss typography: inconsistent letterspacing, varying weights within single words, type set out of line and at non-right angles, working against the grid, and layered lithographic-film collage; that the underlying grid stays inferable beneath each departure is Aesthetary's reading." }, "scope": { "state": "resolved", "text": "New Wave is a 1970s Basel typographic approach that breaks the grid from inside. Register: uneven spacing, mixed weights within words, angled setting, film layering. Airbrush, gradients and imagery are our reading.", "ruling": "D0-1" }, "aliases": [ "Swiss Punk", "postmodern typography" ], "layer_verdict": { "state": "ruled", "value": "coherent_but_narrower", "ruling": "D0-1" } }, "native_medium": { "state": "resolved", "value": [ "print" ], "evidence": { "quote": "layered and over-printed elements", "field": "docs/briefs (brief text)" }, "ruling": "D0-5 MD-3 (2026-09-28)" }, "research": { "line": "partly_sourced", "text": "Partly sourced", "sentence": "9 sources attached. 1 claim graded by our research brief, no source attached." }, "areas": [ { "area": "layout", "state": "resolved", "canon": "specified", "importance": "unknown", "posture_basis": "synthesis", "label": { "text": "Specified" } }, { "area": "typography", "state": "resolved", "canon": "specified", "importance": "unknown", "posture_basis": "synthesis", "label": { "text": "Specified" } }, { "area": "color", "state": "resolved", "canon": "open_by_finding", "importance": "unknown", "posture_basis": "synthesis", "label": { "text": "Left open" } }, { "area": "imagery", "state": "resolved", "canon": "specified", "importance": "unknown", "posture_basis": "synthesis", "label": { "text": "Specified" } }, { "area": "surface", "state": "resolved", "canon": "specified", "importance": "unknown", "posture_basis": null, "label": { "text": "Specified" } }, { "area": "interface", "state": "resolved", "canon": "not_canonically_specified", "importance": "unknown", "posture_basis": null, "label": { "text": "Not specified by the source" } }, { "area": "motion", "state": "resolved", "canon": "not_canonically_specified", "importance": "unknown", "posture_basis": "synthesis", "label": { "text": "Not specified by the source" } }, { "area": "motif", "state": "resolved", "canon": "specified", "importance": "unknown", "posture_basis": null, "label": { "text": "Specified" } }, { "area": "technique", "state": "resolved", "canon": "specified", "importance": "unknown", "posture_basis": null, "label": { "text": "Specified" } }, { "area": "form", "state": "owed", "owed": "research", "why": "No source has been examined for this yet." }, { "area": "hierarchy", "state": "resolved", "canon": "specified", "importance": "unknown", "posture_basis": "synthesis", "label": { "text": "Specified" } }, { "area": "density", "state": "resolved", "canon": "not_canonically_specified", "importance": "unknown", "posture_basis": "synthesis", "label": { "text": "Not specified by the source" } } ], "claims": [ { "id": "typography-4", "text": "Typography: token rule deliberate_rule_violation; letterspacing, intra-word weight change.", "role": "rule", "area": "typography", "basis": "inherited", "support": { "state": "inherited", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "catalogue", "text": "From our catalogue entry" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "hierarchy-13", "text": "CURATORIAL: rank by departure magnitude — the element furthest from where the grid would have put it reads as most important.", "role": "rule", "area": "hierarchy", "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "imagery-7", "text": "Imagery: layered photo-montage.", "role": "rule", "area": "imagery", "basis": "documentary", "support": { "state": "graded_unlinked", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "graded", "mark": "none", "text": "Graded by our research brief · No source attached" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "motion-14", "text": "CURATORIAL from intent: elements snapping to and away from grid positions, so the violation is shown as a violation.", "role": "rule", "area": "motion", "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "intent", "text": "The Swiss grid is a set of rules, and rules can be investigated by violating them precisely. Someone who knows exactly what the system forbids can break it deliberately and produce something that still reads as typography rather than as accident.", "role": "argument", "area": null, "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "failure-1", "text": "No random disorder.", "role": "negative", "area": null, "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "failure-2", "text": "No violation without an underlying grid.", "role": "negative", "area": null, "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "failure-3", "text": "No neutral setting.", "role": "negative", "area": null, "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "failure-4", "text": "No uniform weight within a word where the register calls for change.", "role": "negative", "area": null, "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "failure-6", "text": "Not open: abandoning the underlying grid.", "role": "negative", "area": null, "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "failure-7", "text": "Not open: resolving into neutrality..", "role": "negative", "area": null, "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "intent-negation", "text": "Refuses both the neutrality of the grid and the assumption that abandoning it means disorder.", "role": "argument", "area": null, "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "intent-cost", "text": "Costs accepted: Reproducibility; Immediate legibility; Being mistaken for randomness", "role": "argument", "area": null, "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "intent-audience", "text": "Audience: A viewer fluent enough in Swiss typography to register which rule is being broken.", "role": "argument", "area": null, "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "v1-distinguishing", "text": "The Swiss grid attacked from inside by people who knew it; not random disorder", "role": "diagnostic", "area": null, "basis": "inherited", "support": { "state": "inherited", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "catalogue", "text": "From our catalogue entry" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "v1-era", "text": "Era: postmodern, 1980s", "role": "context", "area": null, "basis": "inherited", "support": { "state": "inherited", "for": [], "against": [ "mass-01:new-wave-typography:WP_NEWWAVE" ], "contested": true }, "label": { "kind": "catalogue", "mark": "disputed", "text": "From our catalogue entry · disputed" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "v1-mood", "text": "Mood: rebellious, strange", "role": "context", "area": null, "basis": "inherited", "support": { "state": "inherited", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "catalogue", "text": "From our catalogue entry" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "v1-cross-library", "text": "Cross-library: Layout: broken grid · Typography: experimental setting", "role": "context", "area": null, "basis": "inherited", "support": { "state": "inherited", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "catalogue", "text": "From our catalogue entry" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "typography-block", "text": "Typography: experimental setting", "role": "rule", "area": "typography", "basis": "inherited", "support": { "state": "inherited", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "catalogue", "text": "From our catalogue entry" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": "D0-3 C2 typo" }, { "id": "surface-8.motif", "text": "Motif: stepped rules", "role": "rule", "area": "motif", "basis": "documentary", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "documented", "mark": "none", "text": "No source attached" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "freedom-color", "text": "Declared freedom: palette.", "role": "context", "area": "color", "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "declared-freedom", "text": "Declared freedom: violation magnitude.", "role": "context", "area": null, "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "kcc:color-1", "text": "A museum-held canonical Weingart New Wave poster (Kunstkredit 76-77, 1977) is black and white, so colour is not a defining attribute of the approach.", "role": "diagnostic", "area": "color", "basis": "documentary", "support": { "state": "cited", "for": [ "kcc-new-wave-typography-S1" ], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "documented", "mark": "attached", "text": "Documented · Source attached" }, "scope": { "practice": "one canonical poster; the colour of other Weingart posters was not checked in an opened record" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "kcc:color-2", "text": "Reference literature records more type sizes and more colours of type than the minimalist Swiss predecessor, without naming any palette.", "role": "context", "area": "color", "basis": "documentary", "support": { "state": "cited", "for": [ "kcc-new-wave-typography-S7" ], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "documented", "mark": "attached", "text": "Documented · Source attached" }, "scope": { "practice": "encyclopaedic, secondary" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "kcc:color-3", "text": "In Weingart's Basel typeshop, letterpress was used to teach students principles of colour-mixing and printing quality.", "role": "context", "area": "color", "basis": "documentary", "support": { "state": "cited", "for": [ "kcc-new-wave-typography-S5" ], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "documented", "mark": "attached", "text": "Documented · Source attached" }, "scope": { "practice": "teaching practice, 1968-1985" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "kcc:surface-1", "text": "Weingart's New Wave posters leave the photomechanical process visible through rough, fragmented, low-resolution dot screens, and he saw the halftone dot as a self-contained graphic element.", "role": "rule", "area": "surface", "basis": "documentary", "support": { "state": "cited", "for": [ "kcc-new-wave-typography-S3", "kcc-new-wave-typography-S4" ], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "documented", "mark": "attached", "text": "Documented · Source attached" }, "scope": { "practice": "Weingart's film-collage posters, mid-1970s onward; not documented for Greiman's digital work" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "kcc:surface-2", "text": "The textured quality of the type comes from transparent film and collage, a material route, not from applied texture.", "role": "rule", "area": "surface", "basis": "documentary", "support": { "state": "cited", "for": [ "kcc-new-wave-typography-S7", "kcc-new-wave-typography-S2" ], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "documented", "mark": "attached", "text": "Documented · Source attached" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "kcc:surface-3", "text": "Weingart worked by hand so that the marks left by materials in printing would show.", "role": "context", "area": "surface", "basis": "documentary", "support": { "state": "cited", "for": [ "kcc-new-wave-typography-S2" ], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "documented", "mark": "attached", "text": "Documented · Source attached" }, "scope": { "practice": "Weingart's own practice" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "kcc:surface-4", "text": "Weingart and his students used the Xerox machine, with its sfumato quality, as a design tool.", "role": "context", "area": "surface", "basis": "documentary", "support": { "state": "cited", "for": [ "kcc-new-wave-typography-S2" ], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "documented", "mark": "attached", "text": "Documented · Source attached" }, "scope": { "practice": "Weingart and his students" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "kcc:technique-1", "text": "Weingart's later posters depend on layering transparent lithographic film (film collages made with a repro camera, stacked in strata) and make full use of the lithographic process.", "role": "rule", "area": "technique", "basis": "documentary", "support": { "state": "cited", "for": [ "kcc-new-wave-typography-S2", "kcc-new-wave-typography-S5", "kcc-new-wave-typography-S3", "kcc-new-wave-typography-S4" ], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "documented", "mark": "attached", "text": "Documented · Source attached" }, "scope": { "practice": "Weingart and the Basel typeshop" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "kcc:technique-2", "text": "Weingart worked with both lead type, with its fixed limitations, and film, with its boundless possibilities.", "role": "context", "area": "technique", "basis": "documentary", "support": { "state": "cited", "for": [ "kcc-new-wave-typography-S5", "kcc-new-wave-typography-S6" ], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "documented", "mark": "attached", "text": "Documented · Source attached" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "kcc:technique-3", "text": "Type was also manipulated photographically, by over-exposure in the repro camera.", "role": "rule", "area": "technique", "basis": "documentary", "support": { "state": "cited", "for": [ "kcc-new-wave-typography-S3" ], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "documented", "mark": "attached", "text": "Documented · Source attached" }, "scope": { "practice": "Weingart" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "kcc:technique-4", "text": "Greiman later used video and early digital imaging: an interface to digitise still frames from video, and the Quantel Paintbox.", "role": "context", "area": "technique", "basis": "documentary", "support": { "state": "cited", "for": [ "kcc-new-wave-typography-S9" ], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "documented", "mark": "attached", "text": "Documented · Source attached" }, "scope": { "practice": "California New Wave, 1980s" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "kcc:motion-1", "text": "The 'kinetic energy' reference sources attribute to New Wave is a compositional quality of static printed work, not movement.", "role": "context", "area": "motion", "basis": "documentary", "support": { "state": "cited", "for": [ "kcc-new-wave-typography-S7" ], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "documented", "mark": "attached", "text": "Documented · Source attached" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "kcc:motion-2", "text": "Even where Greiman used video, the documented use was digitising still frames for print.", "role": "context", "area": "motion", "basis": "documentary", "support": { "state": "cited", "for": [ "kcc-new-wave-typography-S9" ], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "documented", "mark": "attached", "text": "Documented · Source attached" }, "scope": { "practice": "Design Quarterly 133, 1986" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "kcc:form-1", "text": "The evidenced work is flat print (posters, magazine covers, books). The depth it has is illusory, made by layering on the page.", "role": "context", "area": "form", "basis": "documentary", "support": { "state": "cited", "for": [ "kcc-new-wave-typography-S1", "kcc-new-wave-typography-S9" ], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "documented", "mark": "attached", "text": "Documented · Source attached" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "kcc:definition", "text": "New Wave (also called Swiss Punk) is an approach to typography credited to Wolfgang Weingart at the Basel School of Design in the early 1970s, which broke the mould of classical Swiss typography: inconsistent letterspacing, varying weights within single words, type set out of line and at non-right angles, working against the grid, and layered lithographic-film collage; that the underlying grid stays inferable beneath each departure is Aesthetary's reading.", "role": "definition", "area": null, "basis": "documentary", "support": { "state": "cited", "for": [ "kcc-new-wave-typography-S7", "kcc-new-wave-typography-S2", "kcc-new-wave-typography-S1", "kcc-new-wave-typography-S8" ], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "documented", "mark": "attached", "text": "Documented · Source attached" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "dcc:gestalt", "text": "Type set with conspicuous letterspacing and weight changes inside single words, type set out of line and at non-right angles, and strata of transparent lithographic film with the coarse halftone dot left visible, so the texture comes from the material rather than from anything applied. The diagnostic condition is informed violation: the underlying grid remains inferable, and each departure is legible as a departure — which is why the work reads as argument rather than as noise. Swiss Style holds the grid; this attacks it from inside with full knowledge of it. Anti-Design breaks alignment without a system to break.", "role": "diagnostic", "area": null, "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [ "kcc:definition", "kcc:technique-1", "kcc:surface-1", "kcc:surface-2" ], "ruling": null }, { "id": "dcc:layout-3", "text": "Composition: working against the grid; type out of line and at non-right angles; layered film.", "role": "rule", "area": "layout", "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [ "kcc:definition", "kcc:technique-1" ], "ruling": null }, { "id": "dcc:failure-5", "text": "Against Swiss Style: holding versus attacking the same grid. Against Anti-Design: informed violation versus breakage without a system. Anti-signature: remove the inferable grid and it becomes Anti-Design. Resolve the violations and it becomes Swiss.", "role": "negative", "area": null, "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "dcc:gestalt-boundary", "text": "Against Swiss Style: holding versus attacking the same grid. Against Anti-Design: informed violation versus breakage without a system. Anti-signature: remove the inferable grid and it becomes Anti-Design. Resolve the violations and it becomes Swiss.", "role": "boundary", "area": null, "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null }, { "id": "dcc:nw-r1", "text": "The violation must be informed: the underlying grid stays inferable and each departure reads as a departure. Disorder that leaves no system to be departed from is a different Aesthetic.", "role": "rule", "area": "typography", "basis": "synthesis", "support": { "state": "none", "for": [], "against": [], "contested": false }, "label": { "kind": "reading", "text": "Our reading" }, "derives_from": [], "ruling": null } ], "web_translations": [], "standard_practice": [], "sources": [ { "id": "mass-01:new-wave-typography:WP_NEWWAVE", "kind": "source", "title": "New Wave (design)", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Wave_(design", "status": "verified", "retrieval": "retrieved" }, { "id": "kcc-new-wave-typography-S1", "kind": "source", "title": "Kunsthalle Basel Kunstkredit 76-77 (poster, Wolfgang Weingart, 1977)", "url": "https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1155283/kunsthalle-basel-kunstkredit-76-77-poster-weingart-wolfgang/", "status": "verified", "retrieval": "retrieved" }, { "id": "kcc-new-wave-typography-S2", "kind": "source", "title": "Weingart Typography: Exhibits' Highlights", "url": "https://hkdi.edu.hk/hkdi_gallery/2015/weingart/exhibits_highlights.html", "status": "verified", "retrieval": "retrieved" }, { "id": "kcc-new-wave-typography-S3", "kind": "source", "title": "Meet the man who shattered the Swiss type mold (Museum of Design Zurich unveils the Weingart Archive)", "url": "https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/museum-of-design-zurich-unveils-the-weingart-archive/", "status": "verified", "retrieval": "retrieved" }, { "id": "kcc-new-wave-typography-S4", "kind": "source", "title": "Reputations: Wolfgang Weingart", "url": "https://eyemagazine.com/feature/article/reputations-wolfgang-weingart", "status": "verified", "retrieval": "retrieved" }, { "id": "kcc-new-wave-typography-S5", "kind": "source", "title": "My Typography Instruction at the Basle School of Design/Switzerland, 1968 to 1985 (Design Quarterly 130; JSTOR copy reproduced at neugraphic.com)", "url": "https://www.neugraphic.com/weingart/wolfgang_weingart1985.pdf", "status": "verified", "retrieval": "retrieved" }, { "id": "kcc-new-wave-typography-S6", "kind": "source", "title": "The Daily Heller: Wolfgang Weingart, Typographic Disruptor and Pioneer (reprint of the 2005 AIGA VOICE interview 'Wolfgang Weingart: Making the Young Generation Nuts')", "url": "https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/the-daily-heller-wolfgang-weingart-typographic-disruptor-and-pioneer/", "status": "unresolved", "retrieval": "not_retrieved" }, { "id": "kcc-new-wave-typography-S7", "kind": "source", "title": "New Wave (design)", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Wave_(design)", "status": "verified", "retrieval": "retrieved" }, { "id": "kcc-new-wave-typography-S8", "kind": "source", "title": "Reputations: Dan Friedman", "url": "https://eyemagazine.com/feature/article/reputations-dan-friedman", "status": "verified", "retrieval": "retrieved" }, { "id": "kcc-new-wave-typography-S9", "kind": "source", "title": "April Greiman", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Greiman", "status": "verified", "retrieval": "retrieved" } ], "relations": [ { "slug": "swiss-style", "kind": "confused_with", "status": "proposed" }, { "slug": "anti-design", "kind": "confused_with", "status": "proposed" }, { "slug": "new-wave-typography", "kind": "visual_language_of", "status": "confirmed" } ], "open": [ { "kind": "missing_research", "question": "Is there a New Wave palette, particularly in Greiman's and the California branch's work?" }, { "kind": "missing_research", "question": "Are the stepped forms built from typographic rules?" } ], "aesthetary_build": { "note": "Values Aesthetary built with. Not claims about the Aesthetic.", "measured": { "note": "Read from the page's own stylesheet at build time. Values Aesthetary built with, not claims about the Aesthetic.", "slug": "new-wave-typography", "stylesheet": "new-wave-typography.css", "bytes": 14108, "colours": [ "#111111", "#F2F0EA", "#FFD500", "#B8006A", "#5E5C57", "#E6007E", "#009BD1", "#FFFFFF" ], "radii": [], "fontSizes": [ "14px", "15px", "16px", "20px" ], "faces": [ "NW Archivo" ], "tokens": [ { "name": "--nw-paper", "value": "#F2F0EA" }, { "name": "--nw-ink", "value": "#111111" }, { "name": "--nw-mag", "value": "#E6007E" }, { "name": "--nw-cy", "value": "#009BD1" }, { "name": "--nw-yel", "value": "#FFD500" }, { "name": "--nw-magd", "value": "#B8006A" }, { "name": "--nw-grey", "value": "#5E5C57" }, { "name": "--nw-face", "value": "\"NW Archivo\", \"Helvetica Neue\", Arial, sans-serif" }, { "name": "--nw-gap", "value": "20px" }, { "name": "--nw-rot", "value": "180deg" }, { "name": "--nw-dy", "value": "30px" }, { "name": "--y", "value": "hover { background: var(--nw-ink)" } ], "animates": false, "absent": [ "no text-shadow anywhere", "nothing animates" ] }, "design_grammar": { "note": "Aesthetary's translation of this record into web primitives. Every value carries a basis: \"record\" is a rule the record holds (cites names it), \"translation\" is our choice derived from the cited rules (because says how), \"not_recorded\" means the record is silent (guidance says what to do). A \"record\" value restates a claim the record holds; its standing is that claim's own kind in the record (a requirement, period practice, modern practice, or our interpretation), which the cited rule states. \"record\" does not by itself make a value a property of the language.", "slug": "new-wave-typography", "version": "2026-09-29", "summary": "A starting grammar for a website in New Wave Typography: one inferable grid broken from inside, weight and spacing that change within a word, type set out of line and at angles, and layers of film with the halftone dot left showing.", "color": { "roles": [ { "role": "paper", "value": "#F2F0EA", "use": "The ground.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "claim:kcc:color-1" ] }, { "role": "ink", "value": "#111111", "contrast": "16.2:1", "use": "Type and rules. With paper, a complete palette.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "claim:kcc:color-1" ] }, { "role": "magenta", "value": "#E6007E", "contrast": "3.9:1", "use": "A film layer and display type only.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "claim:freedom-color", "claim:kcc:color-2" ] }, { "role": "cyan", "value": "#009BD1", "contrast": "2.8:1", "use": "A film layer only; never text.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "claim:freedom-color" ] }, { "role": "yellow", "value": "#FFD500", "use": "A film layer and hover ground.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "claim:freedom-color" ] }, { "role": "deep", "value": "#B8006A", "contrast": "5.7:1", "use": "Small text in colour: labels, current page, focus.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "claim:freedom-color" ] } ], "alternates": [], "rules": [ { "rule": "Colour is not defining: a canonical Weingart poster is black and white, so ink on paper is a complete palette.", "basis": "record", "cites": [ "claim:kcc:color-1" ] }, { "rule": "Add colour as flat layers of ink, magenta, cyan and yellow; never as a gradient.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "claim:freedom-color", "claim:kcc:color-2", "claim:kcc:technique-1" ], "because": "The palette is declared free and the literature records more colours of type than Swiss without naming any; flat layers match the film route." } ] }, "typography": { "family": { "stack": "\"NW Archivo\", \"Helvetica Neue\", Arial, sans-serif", "class": "a grotesque with weight and width axes (ours: the record names no face)" }, "roles": [ { "role": "display", "size": "5.5rem", "weight": 900, "lineHeight": "0.86", "case": "upper", "tracking": "0.3em on one run, -0.03em elsewhere", "measure": null, "use": "Titles: weight and width change inside the word." }, { "role": "heading", "size": "1.75rem", "weight": 900, "lineHeight": "1.1", "case": "upper", "tracking": "0.24em", "measure": null, "use": "Section heads, condensed, turned a few degrees." }, { "role": "body", "size": "1.0625rem", "weight": 400, "lineHeight": "1.55", "case": null, "tracking": null, "measure": "68ch", "use": "Reading text, level and normally spaced." } ], "rules": [ { "rule": "Change weight inside single words and let letterspacing be inconsistent.", "basis": "record", "cites": [ "token_rule:typography-4", "claim:kcc:definition" ] }, { "rule": "Set type out of line and at non-right angles.", "basis": "record", "cites": [ "claim:kcc:definition" ] }, { "rule": "Use one family with weight and width axes, so a word can change inside itself.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "token_rule:typography-4" ], "because": "The record names no face; changing weight and width within a word needs both axes on one family." }, { "rule": "Keep reading text level, untracked and uncovered.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "claim:dcc:nw-r1" ], "because": "The violation must read as a departure; a sentence nobody can read is disorder, which the record rules out." } ] }, "gridLayout": { "summary": "One six-column grid under everything, inferable at every departure; two columns under 861px.", "columns": [ { "width": "861px and up", "columns": 6 }, { "width": "under 861px", "columns": 2 } ], "gutter": "20px", "margin": "clamp(16px, 4vw, 40px)", "tokens": { "gutter": "20px" }, "rules": [ { "rule": "Work against the grid, never without it: the grid stays inferable and each departure reads as a departure.", "basis": "record", "cites": [ "claim:dcc:nw-r1", "claim:kcc:definition" ] }, { "rule": "Rank by departure magnitude: the element furthest from where the grid would put it reads as most important.", "basis": "record", "cites": [ "token_rule:hierarchy-13" ] }, { "rule": "Give every block a seat and move it by whole columns.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "claim:dcc:nw-r1" ], "because": "Whole-column moves keep departures measurable and keep reading text level." } ] }, "shapeGeometry": { "tokens": { "radius": "0", "step": "8px", "rule-heavy": "8px" }, "rules": [ { "rule": "Keep everything flat: depth, where there is any, comes from layering on the page.", "basis": "record", "cites": [ "claim:kcc:form-1" ] }, { "rule": "Draw the stepped shape as solid ink steps, each 8px lower than the last.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "claim:kcc:definition" ], "because": "The corrected card line names stepped shapes; the step size and weight are ours." }, { "rule": "Square corners throughout.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "claim:kcc:form-1" ], "because": "The evidenced work is flat cut print; nothing in it is rounded." } ] }, "imagery": { "rules": [ { "rule": "Build images as layered photo-montage.", "basis": "record", "cites": [ "token_rule:imagery-7" ] }, { "rule": "Leave the halftone dot visible, coarse and fragmented; treat the dot as a graphic element.", "basis": "record", "cites": [ "claim:kcc:surface-1" ] }, { "rule": "Stack images and type as transparent film layers.", "basis": "record", "cites": [ "claim:kcc:technique-1" ] }, { "rule": "On screen, draw the screen as a coarse dot pattern (11–14px pitch) on a hard-cut sheet, blended multiply; never blur it.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "claim:kcc:surface-2", "claim:kcc:surface-1" ], "because": "The texture comes from a material route, not an applied effect; the dot pattern is the screen’s form of the film." }, { "rule": "The sources do not say which photographs to use.", "basis": "not_recorded", "cites": [], "guidance": "Use none rather than stock; the montage can be carried by type and film alone.", "silence": "source" } ] }, "components": { "button": { "name": "Button", "becomes": "A square ink-bordered box whose label is set condensed and tracked open, the letterspacing doing the work a fill would do elsewhere.", "anatomy": [ "2px ink border, square corners", "label in the condensed width, 700, tracked 0.1em", "paper field" ], "tokens": { "border": "2px solid #111111", "radius": "0", "field": "#F2F0EA", "hover": "#FFD500" }, "states": { "default": "Paper field, ink border, ink label.", "hover": "Yellow field.", "focus": "3px deep magenta outline, offset 3px.", "active": "Ink field, paper label: pressed reads as inverted.", "disabled": "Label struck through; border kept." }, "accessibility": [ "Ink on paper 16.2:1, on yellow 13.3:1.", "Pressed state also set as aria-pressed, never by colour alone.", "At least 44px tall." ], "values": [ { "rule": "Carry emphasis with letterspacing and width, not with a fill.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "token_rule:typography-4", "claim:kcc:definition" ], "because": "The record makes inconsistent letterspacing and width change a primary device; a button can use the same device." }, { "rule": "Keep the button level and on its seat.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "claim:dcc:nw-r1" ], "because": "Violation must stay informed and legible; a control that moves when pressed would read as disorder." } ] }, "card": { "name": "Card", "becomes": "A block under a heavy 8px ink rule, set on the grid and displaced from its seat by whole columns or by one step down.", "anatomy": [ "8px ink rule on top", "heading condensed and tracked", "body text level and normally spaced" ], "tokens": { "rule": "8px solid #111111", "radius": "0", "step": "30px" }, "states": { "default": "Displaced from its seat.", "hover": "Heading changes weight inside the word.", "focus": "3px deep magenta outline." }, "accessibility": [ "Only the heading turns or changes weight; the body sentence stays level and untracked.", "Reading order is source order, whatever the displacement." ], "values": [ { "rule": "Rank by departure: the card furthest from its seat reads as most important.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "token_rule:hierarchy-13" ], "because": "The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation." }, { "rule": "Displace cards by whole columns or by one step, never by a free offset.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "claim:dcc:nw-r1" ], "because": "A departure is only legible against a grid the reader can still infer." } ] }, "input": { "name": "Input", "becomes": "A plain ink-bordered field with its label set above in the condensed width.", "anatomy": [ "2px ink border", "label above, condensed 700", "entry text at body size, level, normally spaced" ], "tokens": { "border": "2px solid #111111", "radius": "0", "font": "\"NW Archivo\", \"Helvetica Neue\", Arial, sans-serif" }, "states": { "default": "Ink border on paper.", "focus": "3px deep magenta outline.", "error": "Message in deep magenta beneath, prefixed \"Error:\".", "disabled": "Label struck through." }, "accessibility": [ "A visible label on every field.", "Deep magenta #B8006A is 5.7:1 on paper; the error says so in words." ], "values": [ { "rule": "Never break what the user types: the violation stays on display type.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "claim:dcc:nw-r1" ], "because": "The record’s devices are typographic statements; entry text has to be read back exactly." } ] }, "navigation": { "name": "Navigation", "becomes": "A row of words, each changing weight partway through; the current page is the one set furthest from its seat.", "anatomy": [ "words in the display face", "one run inside each word heavier and condensed", "current item turned a few degrees" ], "tokens": { "turn": "-3deg", "current": "#B8006A" }, "states": { "default": "Level, light, with a heavy run inside the word.", "hover": "Yellow behind the word.", "focus": "3px deep magenta outline.", "current": "Turned −3° and set in deep magenta, with aria-current." }, "accessibility": [ "The whole word is the link text; the heavy run is styling only.", "aria-current marks the current page; the turn is not the only cue." ], "values": [ { "rule": "Vary the weight within a single word.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "token_rule:typography-4" ], "because": "The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation." }, { "rule": "Mark the current page by departure: turn it and move it off the line.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "token_rule:hierarchy-13" ], "because": "The record ranks by departure magnitude; the current item is the most important item in a menu." } ] } }, "motion": { "spec": { "durations": { "snap": "500ms" }, "easing": { "snap": "steps(2, end)" }, "transforms": "translate and rotate, display blocks only", "entrance": "none", "hover": "A colour swap or a weight change inside the word.", "reducedMotion": "Blocks sit at their positions; the snap happens with no transition." }, "rules": [ { "rule": "Treat energy as composition: the evidenced work is static print, and its movement is implied.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "claim:kcc:motion-1" ], "because": "The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation." }, { "rule": "Where anything moves, show the violation as a violation: blocks snap to and away from their seats.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "token_rule:motion-14" ], "because": "The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation." }, { "rule": "Snap in two steps; never ease.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "token_rule:motion-14" ], "because": "A stepped move reads as a jump between two positions, so the seat and the departure both stay legible." } ] }, "dimensions": [ { "key": "violation", "label": "Informed violation", "summary": "The grid is broken by someone who knows exactly what it forbids. Take the grid away and what is left is a different Aesthetic.", "values": [ { "rule": "The violation must be informed: the underlying grid stays inferable.", "basis": "record", "cites": [ "claim:dcc:nw-r1" ] }, { "rule": "No random disorder.", "basis": "record", "cites": [ "claim:failure-1" ] }, { "rule": "No violation without an underlying grid.", "basis": "record", "cites": [ "claim:failure-2" ] } ] }, { "key": "film", "label": "Film and process", "summary": "The texture is the material: film over film, the dot left showing, type over-exposed in the repro camera.", "values": [ { "rule": "Let the process show: the marks left by materials in printing are part of the work.", "basis": "record", "cites": [ "claim:kcc:surface-3" ] }, { "rule": "Manipulate type photographically, by over-exposure.", "basis": "record", "cites": [ "claim:kcc:technique-3" ] }, { "rule": "On screen, get the same thickening with weight axes, not with blur.", "basis": "translation", "cites": [ "claim:kcc:technique-3" ], "because": "Over-exposure fattens and softens the letter; a heavier weight on one run is the screen’s honest version." } ] } ], "notRecorded": [ { "category": "color", "what": "A palette", "why": "Colour is left open; a canonical poster is black and white." }, { "category": "components", "what": "Interface conventions", "why": "The work is print. The four components are contemporary translations of its documented rules." }, { "category": "imagery", "what": "Which photographs", "why": "The montage is in our research brief; the sources do not say what it shows." } ], "silence": { "color": "source", "typography": "source", "gridLayout": "source", "shapeGeometry": "source", "imagery": "source", "components": "source", "motion": "source" }, "uiNote": "The sources do not specify interface conventions for New Wave Typography. These four are contemporary translations of its visual rules." } } }