A style study — not a real store, not affiliated with Ikko Tanaka · more
Ikko Tanaka tea study

Chinese tea · poster planes

Cut shapes, four colours, one vermilion

Shapes cut from cream, vermilion, indigo and ochre; a face assembled from arcs, with the leaf set where the thought would be.

Modernist poster: a woman's profile built from flat cream, indigo, black and ochre shapes, her head filled with a photograph of dark pu-erh clumps, vertical brush calligraphy down the left edge

Seven categories, cut flat

34 teas · 7 categories

Green teaGreen tea5 teasOolongOolong14 teasRed tea (hongcha)Red tea (hongcha)6 teasPu-erhPu-erh4 teasWhite teaWhite tea2 teasTea paste (chagao)Tea paste (chagao)2 teasBuckwheat (not a tea)Buckwheat (not a tea)1 tea

Wear the poster

All tees and hoodies →

Wear — Ālǐshān Zhū Lù CháĀlǐshān Zhū Lù CháWear — Bái JiānBái JiānWear — Passion-Fruit OolongPassion-Fruit OolongWear — Raw Pu-erh PasteRaw Pu-erh PasteWear — Ripe Pu-erh PasteRipe Pu-erh PasteWear — Dà Hóng PáoDà Hóng Páo

What these posters are

Every page is cut from flat shapes: an arc for a cheek, a rectangle for a sleeve, a field of halftone dots where a shadow would be. Colour is rationed to four, and the vermilion appears once per page, the way a seal appears once on a scroll. Brush calligraphy is left as calligraphy; printed type stays quiet beside it. A pressed leaf is already a geometric thing, which is why it holds still inside these shapes. The visual language follows Ikko Tanaka's posters as we read them. This is a design study, not a store: nothing is sold, and the project is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by his studio or his heirs.