Type a shade darker than the paper

Why nothing here raises its voice

Every tea in the catalogue is some shade of brown, green or bone, and putting those against a bright ground turns them into stock photography. Against greige they behave, and the golden tips in a Yunnan red or the grey bloom on white tips become the strongest note on the page. Setting the type only slightly darker than the ground means the words are read second, at close range, after the leaf. The long soft shadow does the work that a hard edge would do elsewhere, telling you the heap has depth. The small year plaque is the only hard-edged object allowed, so it functions as a full stop. This is a shop for people who already know what they are looking at and do not want to be shouted at while they look.