Chinese tea · striped letters, one blue
Ultramarine on white, a ruled grid, letters and characters sliced into even horizontal bands. Thirty-four Chinese teas filed as a system rather than a collection.
3 teas · 3 categories
Striping a letterform makes it behave like a signal: the word is a pattern first and language second, and the same rule is applied to the Chinese characters so neither script is treated as decoration for the other. One blue does everything, which means the leaf photograph carries the only other colour on the page. The grid is visible on purpose, with keylines left in and cells left empty, because a tea range is a catalogue and a catalogue benefits from having its filing shown. Small pictograms stand in for the things that are hard to photograph, an eye for appearance, a segmented disc for the cup, a cup with steam for the brew. Chinese tea is classified before it is tasted, by category, by oxidation, by region, and this layout takes that classification seriously instead of hiding it behind a mood photograph. Everything is flat, nothing is shaded, and the page can be read at any size.