Style combination · Pairs well

CalArts Style × Flash Vector Cartoon

Direct precursor: both build flat-vector, rounded characters with even strokes that a crew can redraw and tween; this style adds sliver or dot eyes and softer, thinner-limbed proportions.

From the research on CalArts Style (Rounded Cartoon Character Design)

Mix them and make something CalArts Style Flash Vector Cartoon

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from CalArts Style, their arrangement from Flash Vector Cartoon, the finish from CalArts Style. 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.

CalArts Style (Rounded Cartoon Character Design) Flash Vector Cartoon (Newgrounds-Era Web Animation)

Type from Flash Vector Cartoon: Hand-lettering
Colour from CalArts Style: Flat fields
Pastel
Form from CalArts Style: Rounded & pill
Stylised figuration
Composition from Flash Vector Cartoon: Sequential narrative
Isolated object
Surface from CalArts Style: Flat

The type

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

Display · Flash Vector Cartoon

Wow

Pixelify Sans, standing in for Bitmap-emulating pixel fonts made to stay crisp at small sizes in Flash (e.g. Craig Kroeger's Miniml) for interface text such as preloaders, menus and buttons

Text · CalArts Style

A pejorative, disputed label for the rounded character design of 2010s American TV animation: big heads, dot or sliver eyes, thin limbs, soft uniform outlines and flat candy colours. Renzetti calls it meaningless name-calling; Muto calls it oversimplifying and vague. It lumps very different shows together and is partly a fan-culture proxy. Visual traits are an editorial synthesis, not from the cited article.

Nunito; CalArts Style used Hand-drawn show-title lettering and Rounded sans-serifs

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from CalArts Style, with a counter-accent from Flash Vector Cartoon. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

CalArts Style (Rounded Cartoon Character Design) Flash Vector Cartoon (Newgrounds-Era Web Animation)

#fdf3e1 ground · 36%
#2b2a3a ink · 14%
#ffd35c accent · 18%
#ff3333 accent · 14%
#7aa7f0 accent · 10%
#66cc33 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #fdf3e1;
  --ink: #2b2a3a;
  --accent-1: #ffd35c;
  --accent-2: #ff3333;
  --accent-3: #7aa7f0;
  --accent-4: #66cc33;
  --font-display: "Pixelify Sans", monospace;
  --font-text: "Nunito", sans-serif;
}

The two styles

A cheerful cartoon child with a backpack runs across a green hill, holding a smiling taco overhead, accompanied by a floppy-eared dog and a flying turquoise bird. Large pink and blue lettering reading “Snack Quest” sits above a pastel landscape with mountains, a winding river, flowers, and a distant castle.

2010–present · North America, Global / networked CalArts Style (Rounded Cartoon Character Design) A pejorative, disputed label for the rounded character design of 2010s American TV animation: big heads, dot or sliver eyes, thin limbs, soft uniform outlines and flat candy colours. Renzetti calls it meaningless name-calling; Muto calls it oversimplifying and vague. It lumps very different shows together and is partly a fan-culture proxy. Visual traits are an editorial synthesis, not from the cited article.

A brightly coloured comic shows a spiky-haired child taking a giant chocolate-chip cookie from a jar and running away while an angry chef chases him. A large final panel shows the child fleeing with a bitten cookie above the words “COOKIE RUN.”

1997–2020 · North America, Western Europe, East Asia, Global / networked Flash Vector Cartoon (Newgrounds-Era Web Animation) Short cartoons drawn and animated in Macromedia Flash for the browser and passed around portals such as Newgrounds. Characters are closed vector shapes with flat colour fills and an even stroke, stored as reusable symbols and moved by computer tweening like cut-out puppets, with looping walk cycles and a few mouth shapes. The tone is absurd, ironic or cute-gory, often interactive. By 2002 it was on television (Home Movies, then ¡Mucha Lucha! on US children's TV). Its portal heyday ran to about 2010, and it faded once Flash Player was retired at the end of 2020.

More combinations

With CalArts Style

With Flash Vector Cartoon

Every style combination