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Ruderman tea grotesk

Chinese tea · named in Cyrillic, set tight

The name takes the whole width of the sheet

Cream paper, near-black Cyrillic set edge to edge, one letter in red and a hairline under it. Thirty-four Chinese teas named first and photographed second.

The word bai jian set huge in black Cyrillic capitals with one letter in red, above a wide photograph of silver tea buds

Seven categories, seven headlines

34 teas · 7 categories

Wear the headline

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Why the name is set larger than the tea

Chinese tea reaches Russian speakers through transliteration, so the Cyrillic name is not a translation added at the end but the first thing a buyer actually holds on to. Setting it at full width, tight and heavy, treats that name as the object of the page and lets the photograph act as evidence underneath. One letter in red gives the eye a place to enter a word that is otherwise a solid block, and it also marks which syllable carries the stress. The hairline rule separates the name from the reading matter without adding a box or a panel. Cream paper is used because a spring green tea photographed against pure white reads as grey, and because the black type gains weight on a warm ground. The specification block at the foot is set in figures and caps at the smallest usable size, since dose and water temperature are consulted, not read.