teamai-test/.teamai/skills/common/web-design-engineer/references/style-recipes/mid-century-modern.md

mid-century-modern — Mid-Century Modern (Paul Rand / Saul Bass)

• School: Specialty / Genre (also touches Information Architecture)
• Vibe: 1950s–60s American graphic modernism — geometric shapes, considered hand-feel, jazz-album confidence
• Best for: Cultural / film / publishing identity, premium consumer brands with heritage claim, "tasteful sophistication"
• Touchstone: IBM logo (Paul Rand), Saul Bass Vertigo / Anatomy of a Murder posters, Alvin Lustig book covers, mid-century jazz album sleeves (Reid Miles / Blue Note)

Palette

• Ground: warm cream #EBE3D2 or mustard #D9A441 or muted teal #3D6E70
• Ink: #1A1A18
• Limited palette per piece — 3 colors max, one bold, two muted
• Common mid-century pairings: mustard + brick + cream; teal + cream + black; sienna + ink + bone

Typography

• Display: a geometric grotesque (Futura, Avenir, ITC Avant Garde) at large scale, often condensed weight
• Or a slab serif (Egyptian / Memphis) for editorial moments
• Body: humanist serif (Sabon, Garamond) at 16–17px
• Numerals often set in figures-as-image (a single big numeral as a graphic element)

Spacing: structured grid; 4 / 8 / 16 / 24 / 32 / 48

Radius: 0 throughout. Mid-century is geometric, not soft.

Shadow: none — flat color shapes only

Motion: minimal. Shapes slide into place on a single beat, like a Saul Bass title sequence.

Signature moves

• Geometric shape compositions — a single big circle, a triangle, a half-moon — as the primary visual
• Hand-cut paper feel (shapes have slightly imperfect edges, suggesting they were cut and pasted)
• Type integrated with the shapes (a headline curving around a circle, or sitting inside a colored block)
• A single illustrative motif repeated (a stylized bird, an abstract figure) tying the piece together
• Print-feel grain or paper texture at low opacity

Avoid

• Gradients — mid-century is flat color
• Photography as the lead visual (illustration leads; photography supports)
• More than 3 colors per piece
• Rounded / soft-corner UI

AI prompt seed

Mid-century modern poster composition in the style of Saul Bass, single bold geometric shape (large circle in mustard #D9A441) on warm cream #EBE3D2 paper background, flat color shapes, slight paper texture, hand-cut edges, no gradient, no shadow, 3:4.

Don't use when

• The product is feature-dense / utility-focused (mid-century is editorial / poster thinking)
• The brand has no heritage / cultural / craft claim
• Realistic photography is essential to the message

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Same school — Specialty / Genre: y2k-retrofuturism
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