Cassette Futurism × Synthwave

Neon grids and chrome sunsets show a glamorous 1980s; cassette futurism shows its workaday machinery.

From the research on Cassette Futurism

Mix them and make something Cassette Futurism Synthwave

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Cassette Futurism, their arrangement from Synthwave, the finish from Cassette Futurism. 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.

Cassette Futurism Synthwave / Outrun

Type from Cassette Futurism: Monospace
All caps
Colour from Synthwave: Fluorescent & neon
Dark ground

Cassette Futurism avoids fluorescent & neon: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
Form from Cassette Futurism: Rectilinear
Rules & bars
Composition from Synthwave: Central symmetry
Illusion of depth
Surface from Cassette Futurism: Grain & noise
Skeuomorphic material

The type

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

Display · Cassette Futurism

Again

IBM Plex Mono, standing in for OCR-A (period-typical)

Text · Synthwave

The retro-futurist look of synthwave music: a 1980s revival that grew from mid-2000s French electro and online synth scenes, took its other name from Sega's arcade racer Out Run (1986) and reached the mainstream with Drive (2011). Its register runs from the brooding night drives of Kavinsky and Hotline Miami to the affectionate parody of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and Kung Fury. The visuals, settled around 2010–2013, recall the era's film posters, arcades and VHS: a neon grid running to a banded setting sun, chrome logotypes and hot-pink script, palms and sports cars at night, tape noise.

VT323; Synthwave used Mistral (Roger Excoffon, Fonderie Olive, 1953), the brush script set in hot pink for the Drive poster title and Custom chrome-bevelled, airbrushed logotypes with star glints, after 1980s film-poster and arcade titles

The colours

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

Cassette Futurism Synthwave / Outrun

#0d0221 ground · 36%
#ffd319 ink · 14%
#05d9e8 accent · 18%
#c8422b accent · 14%
#ff9f1c accent · 10%
#b8b09a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #0d0221;
  --ink: #ffd319;
  --accent-1: #05d9e8;
  --accent-2: #c8422b;
  --accent-3: #ff9f1c;
  --accent-4: #b8b09a;
  --font-display: "IBM Plex Mono", monospace;
  --font-text: "VT323", monospace;
}

Use it with care

Synthwave / Outrun: Since about 2015 far-right 'fashwave' has appropriated synthwave, setting fascist symbols, classical statues and slogans on neon grids and swapping the classic neon sun for the Nazi Black Sun; keep the sun a plain banded disc, avoid sunwheel, eagle and bust-plus-slogan layouts, and check where borrowed fan art and music come from.