Indie Pixel Art Revival × Synthwave

Borrow the neon sunset and horizon gradient for key art, keeping the figure and type on the pixel grid.

From the research on Indie Pixel Art Revival

Mix them and make something Indie Pixel Art Revival Synthwave

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Indie Pixel Art Revival, their arrangement from Indie Pixel Art Revival, the finish from Synthwave. 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.

Indie Pixel Art Revival Synthwave / Outrun

Type from Indie Pixel Art Revival: Bitmap & pixel
Eclectic mixing
Colour from Synthwave: Fluorescent & neon
Dark ground
Form from Indie Pixel Art Revival: Stylised figuration
Rectilinear
Composition from Indie Pixel Art Revival: Full bleed
Illusion of depth
Surface from Synthwave: Chrome & 3D render
Glitch

Indie Pixel Art Revival avoids chrome & 3d render: this is where the two pull against each other.

The type

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

Display · Indie Pixel Art Revival

Again

Pixelify Sans, standing in for Custom bitmap lettering drawn per game for titles and interface

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 Indie Pixel Art Revival. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Indie Pixel Art Revival Synthwave / Outrun

#0d0221 ground · 36%
#ffd319 ink · 14%
#05d9e8 accent · 18%
#e0607e accent · 14%
#ff9f1c accent · 10%
#5fc9c4 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #0d0221;
  --ink: #ffd319;
  --accent-1: #05d9e8;
  --accent-2: #e0607e;
  --accent-3: #ff9f1c;
  --accent-4: #5fc9c4;
  --font-display: "Pixelify Sans", 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.

The two styles

A pixel-art poster titled “FARLIGHT” shows a scarf-wearing traveler and a small cat on a rocky ledge overlooking a vast city of towers, bridges, and turquoise waterfalls. A huge pink-orange sun glows behind the distant skyline beneath a dark, star-speckled sky.

2004–present · Global / networked, North America, Northern Europe, East Asia Indie Pixel Art Revival Low-resolution pixel art chosen freely by independent game makers long after the hardware limits were gone. The pixel grid stays visible in sprites, worlds and in-game text, but it carries what the old machines could not: wider views, extra colours, multi-layer parallax, soft light and mood-keyed palettes, often mixed with non-pixel portraits, painted cutscenes and high-definition interfaces. Tiny figures cross deep, atmospheric landscapes, so the tone is nostalgic but also contemplative and personal. It reaches key art, logos, crowdfunding pages, soundtrack sleeves and merchandise.

A neon-lit sports car seen from behind travels down a reflective, palm-lined highway toward a futuristic skyline and a huge striped pink-and-yellow sun. Angular lettering reading “NIGHTRIDE” fills the starry sky above, alongside planets and shooting stars.

2006–present · Global / networked, Western Europe, Northern Europe, North America, Oceania Synthwave / Outrun 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.