A Century of Design
49 design languages drawn from the great movements of the last hundred years — Bauhaus to neo-brutalism. Don't know where to start? Search by a feeling, or wander the timeline. Every system tells you where it came from.
1930s–1960s
1La Concha
“The curve as hospitality; grandeur made cozy.”
1970s–1990s
1Santa Monica
“The container refuses the box; structure shows its seams.”
1910s–1950s
1Taliesin
“Form and function are one — the land is the language.”
1900s
2Sachplakat
“One object, the brand name, nothing else — the ware is the whole argument.”
Ver Sacrum
“Der Zeit ihre Kunst, der Kunst ihre Freiheit — to the age its art, to art its freedom.”
1910s
3Merz
“Kunst aus Abfall — a composition glued from tram tickets and torn paper, with a composer’s eye.”
Unovis
“The supremacy of pure feeling — flat forms suspended in a white void, held by overlap and scale, never a shadow.”
Zang Tumb
“Le parole in libertà — words torn off the baseline, typography as the sound of speed.”
1920s
3Dessau
“Kunst und Technik — eine neue Einheit; every form is a workshop product.”
Schröder
“The right angle as religion; primary color as fact, not decoration.”
Vkhutemas
“Iskusstvo v proizvodstvo — art into production; the page is built along one driven diagonal, never decorated.”
1930s
4Isotype
“Größere Menge — mehr Zeichen, nicht größere Zeichen: a greater quantity is more symbols, never a bigger symbol.”
Monte Carlo
“Speed you can stand still and look at.”
See America
“See America — a few flat plates, honest grain, and an open invitation.”
Zephyr
“Speed at a standstill — chrome, rounded prow, and three whiskers trailing behind.”
1940s
2Case Study
“Post-and-beam honesty and one low sun-cast shadow — the good life, off-the-shelf.”
Direction
“One red, one idea, and a great deal of white space.”
1950s
5Espresso Dopio
“Poster-weight conviction; color served full strength.”
Layette
“Nursery pastels held inside ledger discipline — soft cloth colours, hard tabular columns.”
Neue Grafik
“Die Gestaltung ist objektiv — the grid is the argument, size is the hierarchy, and there is only one red.”
Title Sequence
“One hot color, cut from paper with a knife — type that is always one frame from moving.”
Ulm
“Weniger, aber besser — depth is the machined seam, not a shadow; the interface disappears.”
1960s
4Amistad
“Everything radiates from the center; the line never stops.”
Fillmore
“Fill every void with molten type; choose the colors that won’t sit still.”
Push Pin
“Depth is drawn — a uniform contour line, flat decorative color inside it, and wit doing the rest.”
Silver Factory
“I want to be a machine — the same image, pulled again, each plate keyed to a different color.”
1970s
4Hipgnosis
“One impossible photograph, shot for real; the interface recedes so the image can carry everything.”
Sea Ranch
“Paint the geometry bigger than the wall — a single confident stroke, cropped by the room.”
Sniffin' Glue
“Here’s three chords, now form a band — toner on paper, stapled, and out the door.”
The Worm
“Good design is a public service — everything measured, annotated, and set in one red rule on white.”
1980s
4Carlton
“Laminate over everything, the Bacterio squiggle across it, and a red joint where taste used to be.”
Cathode
“READY. — a fixed hardware palette on a near-black tube, every element snapped to the character grid, seen through a scanline.”
Pacific Wave
“Does it make sense? — type and picture floating in deep gradient space, hybrid imagery from Basel by way of the Macintosh.”
The Face
“The bar is a navigation device, the letter is architecture — every mark labels, numbers, or points.”
1990s
6303
“Twist the 303, print it overnight on fluoro card, staple the smiley up before dawn.”
Adjacency
“Swiss poster meets the first commercial web: flat saturated color fields, huge bold caps, and a cut-out photo floating on color.”
End of Print
“Type as texture; emotion before legibility.”
Pho-Ku
“Work. Buy. Consume. Repeat™ — every mark is a product, and every product winks.”
Raven
“Murk lit by hot magic: dithered stone at 320×200, carved bevels, and a single glowing gem in the dark.”
Under Construction
“Welcome to my corner of the web! — the browser’s own silver, Times New Roman, and the honest 2px bevel.”
2000s
1Aqua
“Buttons you want to lick — a white specular cap over color deepening at the bottom, on a capsule, in daylight.”
2010s
3Béton Brut
“Raw as poured: black on white, default-blue links, 1px borders, no shadow — and hover flips ink and ground.”
Palm Mall
“A sunset you can stand inside: gradient sky, chrome 3D text, a glowing sun on the grid horizon.”
Quantum Paper
“Digital paper: every surface sits at a real elevation and casts a two-part key + ambient shadow.”
2020s
5Acid Editorial
“A giant serif on warm paper, one acid pop, and a rotated sticker badge — the indie magazine cover.”
Back Nine
“A movement, not a country club.”
Curious Network
“Every sport is a material; the kit is the color system.”
Hard Candy
“Every element is a sticker — a thick black outline and a solid black offset shadow, filled candy-bright.”
Millennium
“Liquid chrome and ice blue: a metal bevel top-lit and bottom-shadowed, cut by a lens flare.”