Stylogeny combining Bitmap × Vaporwave

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Style combination · Pairs well

Bitmap × Vaporwave

Use pixel fonts, dithered gradients and Windows-style dialog boxes as framing devices for vaporwave collages.

From the research on Vaporwave

Mix them and make something Bitmap Vaporwave

OrbitOrbitOrbitBitmap × Vaporwave1977 · 2011
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Bitmap, their arrangement from Bitmap, the finish from Vaporwave. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

01

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.

Bitmap & Pixel Graphics Vaporwave

Type from Bitmap
Colour from Vaporwave

Bitmap avoids gradients: this is where the two pull against each other.

Form from Bitmap
Composition from Bitmap
Surface from Vaporwave

02

The type

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

Display · Bitmap

Orbit

Pixelify Sans, standing in for Chicago (Susan Kare, 1984)

Text · Vaporwave

An internet-born microgenre and visual aesthetic that remixes the debris of late-20th-century consumer culture (Windows 95 dialogs, classical busts, palm trees, mall interiors, Japanese text, early 3D renders) in pastel pinks and cyans. Emerging around 2011 from records by James Ferraro, Daniel Lopatin and Vektroid, it is at once nostalgic homage and deadpan critique of corporate optimism.

Shippori Mincho; Vaporwave used Full-width Latin text and Japanese katakana in MS Gothic / MS Mincho

03

The colours

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

Bitmap & Pixel Graphics Vaporwave

  • #1a1040 ground · 36%
  • #fffb96 ink · 14%
  • #01cdfe accent · 18%
  • #9bbc0f accent · 14%
  • #05ffa1 accent · 10%
  • #55ffff accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #1a1040;
  --ink: #fffb96;
  --accent-1: #01cdfe;
  --accent-2: #9bbc0f;
  --accent-3: #05ffa1;
  --accent-4: #55ffff;
  --font-display: "Pixelify Sans", monospace;
  --font-text: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
}

04

The two styles

A retro pixel-art space navigation interface shows a gridded star map with a spiral galaxy, colorful stars, and green celestial bodies. A right-hand panel displays a cyan planet and its statistics, while object cards and a command menu run along the bottom. 1977–1995 · North America, East Asia Bitmap & Pixel Graphics Graphics and lettering built from the square pixels of low-resolution screens (arcade and console sprites, home-computer displays and the first graphical user interfaces), where every dot was placed by hand within tight limits of memory, resolution and palette. Designers such as Susan Kare turned those constraints into a language of legible pictogram icons, jagged bitmap fonts and dithered tones. A large classical sculpted head rises from a turquoise swimming pool beneath a striped yellow-pink sun, surrounded by palm trees, waterfalls, city buildings and tropical foliage. Floating computer windows, a dolphin, cherry blossoms, a compact disc and a wireframe globe fill the pink-and-purple sky beneath the title “DREAM POOL.” 2011–2017 · Global / networked, North America Vaporwave An internet-born microgenre and visual aesthetic that remixes the debris of late-20th-century consumer culture (Windows 95 dialogs, classical busts, palm trees, mall interiors, Japanese text, early 3D renders) in pastel pinks and cyans. Emerging around 2011 from records by James Ferraro, Daniel Lopatin and Vektroid, it is at once nostalgic homage and deadpan critique of corporate optimism.

05

More combinations

With Bitmap

All 19 combinations with Bitmap

With Vaporwave

All 19 combinations with Vaporwave

Every style combination