Style combination · Contrasts
CalArts Style × Rubber-Hose Revival
Inkier, pie-eyed, nostalgic 1930s mascot drawing against thin-limbed, flat-coloured, contemporary character design.
Mix them and make something CalArts Style Rubber-Hose Revival
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.
CalArts Style (Rounded Cartoon Character Design) Rubber-Hose Revival (Cartoon Mascot Graphics)
- Type from Rubber-Hose Revival
- Colour from CalArts Style
- Form from CalArts Style
- Composition from Rubber-Hose Revival
- Surface from Rubber-Hose Revival
02
The type
Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.
Display · Rubber-Hose Revival
Yay!
Londrina Solid, standing in for Hand-lettered titles in the manner of early-1930s cartoon title cards: bouncy, swelling capitals drawn to match the character
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
03
The colours
The ground and leading colours come from CalArts Style, with a counter-accent from Rubber-Hose Revival. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.
CalArts Style (Rounded Cartoon Character Design) Rubber-Hose Revival (Cartoon Mascot Graphics)
-
#fdf3e1ground · 36% -
#2b2a3aink · 14% -
#ffd35caccent · 18% -
#d7352baccent · 14% -
#7aa7f0accent · 10% -
#6fd3c4accent · 8%
As CSS
:root {
--ground: #fdf3e1;
--ink: #2b2a3a;
--accent-1: #ffd35c;
--accent-2: #d7352b;
--accent-3: #7aa7f0;
--accent-4: #6fd3c4;
--font-display: "Londrina Solid", cursive;
--font-text: "Nunito", sans-serif;
}Use it with care
Rubber-Hose Revival (Cartoon Mascot Graphics): The early cartoon look this revives is entangled with blackface minstrelsy: several sources trace the black bodies, white gloves and large white eyes of Mickey Mouse and his peers to minstrel caricature, and many 1930s shorts carried explicit racial caricature. Borrow the elastic limbs, round construction and outline, not the minstrel face; never give a character exaggerated lips, dialect or skin colour as an ethnic marker. The characters themselves (Cuphead, Bendy, Mickey, Felix, Oswald, Betty Boop) are still trademarked or copyrighted: invent your own mascot and never ask an image model for a named character or studio hand.
04
The two styles
05
More combinations
With CalArts Style
- Corporate Memphis Pairs well · Both use flat fills and simplified figures; borrow its pastel UI-illustration palette, but keep faces and expressions, which Corporate Memphis drops.
- Flash Vector Cartoon (Newgrounds-Era Web Animation) Pairs well · 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.
- Chat Reaction-Sticker Cartooning (LINE) Pairs well · Reduced faces and bold soft outlines carry emotion at small sizes, so character designs translate well into stickers and avatars.
- UPA & Cartoon Modern Contrasts · Mid-century angular, graphic stylisation against soft rounded forms; mixing them gives a more designed, less generic look.
With Rubber-Hose Revival
- Corporate Memphis Contrasts · Both draw stretched figures in flat colour, but the revival gives each brand its own outlined, nostalgic mascot where Corporate Memphis uses interchangeable faceless people.
- UPA & Cartoon Modern Contrasts · UPA rejected exactly this: it traded rubbery full movement and round bodies for angular caricature, flat modernist sets and limited animation.
- Yuru-chara (Japanese Local Mascot Design) Pairs well · Both build a mascot from the thing it promotes; borrow the yuru-chara's costume-ready frontal figure and licensing for a rubber-hose brand character.
- Underground Comix Pairs well · Add its hatching, crowding and adult edge for a darker take on the hose-limbed character, as Bendy turned the cartoon sinister.
- Push Pin Style Contrasts · Push Pin also revived old cartoon and Victorian graphics with playful lettering, but as eclectic editorial illustration; the rubber-hose revival commits to one animation convention and a recurring brand character.
- Risograph & Indie Print Culture Pairs well · Print the mascot's stickers and zines in two riso inks for grain and misregistration that suit its period feel.
- Hipster Artisanal Revival Contrasts · The independent food brand's previous look: a cartoon protagonist replaces the monochrome badge and Victorian craft cues.
- Newtro (Korean New-Retro) Contrasts · Both are post-2017 nostalgic branding in flat spot colour; newtro quotes Korean 1970s–80s packaging and emblems, the revival quotes 1920s–30s American animation.