Style combination · Pairs well

Art Nouveau × Solarpunk

Olivia Louise built the look on 'updated Art Nouveau': borrow arched frames, whiplash vines and Mucha-style lettering for the veneer, but keep the painted vista and future infrastructure so it reads as a world to come rather than a period revival.

From the research on Solarpunk

Mix them and make something Art Nouveau Solarpunk

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Art Nouveau, their arrangement from Art Nouveau, the finish from Solarpunk. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Art Nouveau Solarpunk

Type from Art Nouveau: Hand-lettering
Ornamented display
Colour from Solarpunk: Analogous harmony
Earth & mineral
Form from Art Nouveau: Whiplash line
Biomorphic curves
Composition from Art Nouveau: Organic flow
Framed panels
Surface from Solarpunk: Painterly brushwork

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Art Nouveau

Bloom

Federant, standing in for Arnold Böcklin (Otto Weisert, 1904)

Text · Solarpunk

Hopeful eco-futurist imagery born online. The word dates from a 2008 blog post; the look from an August 2014 Tumblr post by the artist Olivia Louise asking for renewable technology with 'an Art Nouveau veneer'. Sunlit painted vistas, or flat, textured cover illustrations thick with foliage, show cities grown over with gardens, stained-glass solar panels, airships, wind power and shared streets full of people, in natural greens and sky blues warmed by gold. It fills book and magazine covers, concept art and animation as the daylit, communal opposite of cyberpunk's neon night.

Newsreader; Solarpunk used Swash, Art Nouveau-flavoured upper- and lowercase display lettering, as in Solarpunk Magazine's orange masthead and Wide, flared capitals with sun-wheel O's on a translucent title panel over the painting, as on the Sunvault cover

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Solarpunk, with a counter-accent from Art Nouveau. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Art Nouveau Solarpunk

#f4ecd2 ground · 36%
#2b4a3a ink · 14%
#e8b445 accent · 18%
#b8652f accent · 14%
#3f7a75 accent · 10%
#2f9fae accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f4ecd2;
  --ink: #2b4a3a;
  --accent-1: #e8b445;
  --accent-2: #b8652f;
  --accent-3: #3f7a75;
  --accent-4: #2f9fae;
  --font-display: "Federant", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Newsreader", serif;
}

Use it with care

Solarpunk: Draw original worlds rather than pastiches of Studio Ghibli films or of living illustrators such as Likhain, Fei Fei Ruan or Stephen Lillie, and do not prompt an image model with their names. Do not use the look to greenwash: Adam Flynn calls luxury condos with a green roof that price out existing communities 'fake Solarpunk urbanism', so show shared, affordable infrastructure and ordinary people. When a scene borrows architecture, dress or symbols from a specific culture (Afrofuturist, Indigenous or other), keep their meanings and credit their makers.

The two styles

An illustrated poster headed “RIVERBLOOM” shows a woman in a flowing green dress with long auburn hair entwined with pink flowers, reaching down to touch rippling water. Water lilies, curling foliage and an ornate botanical border surround her, with a river, distant trees and a golden sun behind her.

1890–1910 · Western Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, North America Art Nouveau An international 'new art' that sought a modern style free of historical revival, drawing its forms from plant growth and the female figure. Graphic work flows with whiplash curves and stylised flowers, frames idealised women in arches, halos and mosaic borders, and draws custom lettering that bends to fill the space, fusing image, ornament and type into one decorative surface.

An ornate illustrated poster reads “BRIGHTER TOGETHER” above a sunlit, plant-covered city with glasshouses, bridges, waterfalls, wind turbines and sailboats on a canal. In the foreground, a woman tends flowers beside a man, a child and a cat, with flowering vines framing the scene.

2014–present · Global / networked, North America, Latin America & Caribbean Solarpunk Hopeful eco-futurist imagery born online. The word dates from a 2008 blog post; the look from an August 2014 Tumblr post by the artist Olivia Louise asking for renewable technology with 'an Art Nouveau veneer'. Sunlit painted vistas, or flat, textured cover illustrations thick with foliage, show cities grown over with gardens, stained-glass solar panels, airships, wind power and shared streets full of people, in natural greens and sky blues warmed by gold. It fills book and magazine covers, concept art and animation as the daylit, communal opposite of cyberpunk's neon night.

More combinations

With Art Nouveau

All 28 combinations with Art Nouveau

With Solarpunk

All 10 combinations with Solarpunk

Every style combination