Mid-Century Modern vs Supergraphics

Supergraphics is the cross-discipline counterpart of Mid-Century Modern.

Stahl House (Case Study House #22), Los Angeles — Mid-Century Modern

Mid-Century Modern

Warm, livable modernism — clean lines and flat planes opened up with glass walls that dissolve the boundary between indoors and out.

  • Clean horizontal lines, flat or low-pitched roofs
  • Floor-to-ceiling glass and walls of windows
  • Open floor plans and indoor-outdoor flow
  • Honest use of wood, stone, and brick
  • Integration with the natural site and landscape
Full Mid-Century Modern guide →
Original specimen in the Supergraphics style

Supergraphics

Enormous, bold typographic and geometric forms painted directly onto walls and buildings, scaled to architecture itself. Hard-edged color shapes and giant letters that reshape how a space is perceived.

  • Oversized type and geometry at architectural scale
  • Flat planes of hard-edged saturated color
  • Forms wrapping walls, corners, and whole facades
  • Bold stripes, arrows, numerals, and circles
  • Graphics that visually restructure the space
Full Supergraphics guide →

At a glance

Mid-Century ModernSupergraphics
Era1945–19691960s–1970s
DisciplineArchitectureGraphic Design
RegionUnited States, ScandinaviaUnited States
FamilyModernismModernist
Formal traitsclean-lined, organic, minimal, indoor-outdoorlarge-scale, flat-color, geometric, architectural

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