A style study — not a real store, not affiliated with Supreme · more
Red bar tea, a Supreme study

Chinese tea · one red bar, centred

One red bar across the middle of the leaf

Thirty-four Chinese teas photographed flat and centred, each one crossed by a single red rectangle of white italic capitals. There is nothing else on the page.

Circle of toasted buckwheat granules on off-white crossed at its centre by a red rectangle holding white italic lettering

Seven categories, one bar

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 bar

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

Why this shop is a single rectangle

The whole system is one rectangle, one colour and one typeface, which means the only variable left is the photograph underneath. That is a hard test for a tea catalogue and a useful one: if a tea does not read at a glance as itself, no layout is going to rescue it. Placing the bar across the widest part of the pile forces the type to sit half on the leaf, so the two elements share a plane instead of stacking politely. Off-white paper rather than white keeps silver buds and pale green from disappearing at the edges. The second, smaller block underneath is the only concession to information, and it carries the name in both scripts at the same weight. Restraint here is not minimalism as a style; it is what happens when a system has to hold thirty-four different photographs without changing.