# Mavo generator

A dense collage print: one word in wood type, columns of newsprint, your photo thresholded and blotted, a figure of cut discs, and ink worn through to the paper.

Open the generator: https://morph.ogeny.app/mavo/

## Design choices

- **Photomontage** (`image.photomontage`): Cut and recombined photographs. Set by “Photomontage”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/photomontage/
- **Horror vacui** (`space.dense`): Every area is filled; abundant, crowded, layered. Set by “Horror vacui”. Measured on the opening picture, from 0 to 1: shapes 216 → 302. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/
- **Found & vernacular imagery** (`image.found-vernacular`): Clip art, stock, screenshots, appropriated ephemera. Set by “Found & vernacular imagery”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/found-and-vernacular-imagery/
- **Limited spot colours** (`color.limited-spot`): Two or three flat inks. Set by “Limited spot colours”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/
- **Collage & layering** (`layout.collage`): Overlapping fragments, cut-outs and stacked planes. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/collage-and-layering/
- **Visual tension** (`space.tension`): Deliberate instability: crowded edges, clashes, near-collisions. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/visual-tension/
- **Eclectic mixing** (`type.mixed-faces`): Many typefaces and sizes combined in one composition. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/eclectic-mixing/
- **Non-representational** (`form.abstract`): Pure form with no depicted subject. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/non-representational/
- **Carved line** (`surface.woodcut`): Woodcut, linocut or engraving marks. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/carved-line/
- **Rules & bars** (`ornament.rules-bars`): Thick bars, lines and dots as structural accents. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rules-and-bars/

## How it works

- One heavy word runs across the top in letters that are each their own block; below it near-upright scraps of newsprint, bars and the photo in one hard ink pack the sheet, and one mechanical figure of cut half-discs sits across them with a straight slash through it.
- Fine type sits right beside huge shapes, and the ink is worn through to the paper in flecks, grain and dry patches.

It never does:

- No photo in greys or halftone: it is one hard threshold, blotted.
- No script it would have to invent: Latin letters only, and no reproduction of a known cover or page.
- No clean flat vector shapes without wear, unless the wear is turned down.

## Controls

- `head` Headline (default "PRINT"): Left as “PRINT”, each variation picks its own word; type yours to set it. Each letter becomes its own block across the top. Short words stand tallest; leave it empty for no headline.
- `stamp` Stamp (default "NEW"): Left as “NEW”, each variation picks its own; type yours to set it. Its letters stack in a block down the side. Two or three letters look best; leave it empty for no stamp.
- `share` Photomontage (scraps | third | half; default scraps): How much of the sheet your photo takes. It is always there: a large scrap showing the whole subject, and small ones showing parts of it.
- `density` Horror vacui (0–1, default 0.65): How many scraps are pasted down. Low leaves bare paper between larger pieces; high packs the sheet with small ones. Measured on the opening picture, from 0 to 1: shapes 216 → 302.
- `news` Found & vernacular imagery (0–1, default 0.6): The share of newsprint against pattern among the scraps: all bars and dots at 0, all columns of type at 1.
- `figure` Figure (any | ring | spokes | arcs | wheel; default any): What is cut into the big half-disc in the middle of the sheet.
- `accent` Limited spot colours (main | second | light | cool | key; default main): The colour of the slash and the wedges, taken from the palette.
- `wear` Ink wear (0–1, default 0.65): How far the ink is worn: flecks, wood grain and dry patches where the paper shows through. At 0 the shapes print clean, with cut edges only.
- `effect` Movement (turn | rock | scraps | still; default turn): The cut discs turn once a loop on their own axles in held steps, like a stop-motion print, or rock back and forth; a few scraps shift a little. The slash, the headline and the wear stay put.

## About Mavo

Mavo was an anarchist avant-garde group in Tokyo in the 1920s. Its printed pages packed heavy hand-cut lettering, linocuts of abstract machine forms and real newspaper into one sheet, inside thick black and red rules, with nothing left calm. The look here is grown from pictures in that spirit, and uses Latin letters only.

Each sheet sets one word as separate blocks across the top, then pastes near-upright scraps of newsprint and pattern below it. Your photo stays on your device. It appears on some of the scraps at one hard threshold, with blots of paper and pools of ink laid over, so it reads as ink first and as a photo second. You choose how much of the sheet it takes.

A figure of cut half-discs sits across the collage with a straight slash through it. In motion the discs turn on their axles in held steps, like a stop-motion print, and a few scraps shift a little, while the slash and the headline hold still. Real letters are kept for the scraps that can be read; the other columns are ticks that make the same grey at print size.

Mavo in Stylogeny (1923–1925): https://stylogeny.com/styles/mavo/

## Recipe

```json
{
  "tool": "mavo",
  "v": 1,
  "seed": 8,
  "format": "portrait",
  "params": {
    "head": "PRINT",
    "stamp": "NEW",
    "share": "scraps",
    "density": 0.65,
    "news": 0.6,
    "figure": "any",
    "accent": "main",
    "wear": 0.65,
    "effect": "turn"
  },
  "palette": "mavo"
}
```