Kawaii Design × Memphis Design

Kawaii characters sit happily on Memphis pastel geometry; combine them for playful packaging with a little more edge.

From the research on Kawaii Design

Memphis pastel geometry and kawaii's rounded characters share a toy-like optimism; combine them for playful packaging.

From the research on Memphis Design

Mix them and make something Kawaii Design Memphis Design

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Memphis Design, their arrangement from Kawaii Design, the finish from Kawaii Design. 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.

Kawaii Design Memphis Design

Type from Kawaii Design: Rounded sans
Hand-lettering
Colour from Memphis Design: Complementary clash
Full polychrome
Form from Memphis Design: Geometric primitives
Squiggles & confetti
Composition from Kawaii Design: Isolated object
Central symmetry
Surface from Kawaii Design: Flat

The type

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

Display · Kawaii Design

Pop

Zen Maru Gothic, standing in for Maru-ji (rounded teenage handwriting, 1970s)

Text · Memphis Design

The Milan collective founded by Ettore Sottsass, whose furniture, laminates and objects (first shown in September 1981) became a graphic language of their own. Clashing colours, speckles, squiggles, zigzags and primitive geometric shapes were combined with deliberate bad taste, mocking modernist good form while quoting 1950s kitsch, Pop and Art Deco.

Jost; Memphis Design used Futura and ITC Avant Garde Gothic

The colours

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

Kawaii Design Memphis Design

#ffd23f ground · 36%
#111111 ink · 14%
#ff5a36 accent · 18%
#e60033 accent · 14%
#2ec4b6 accent · 10%
#cdb4ff accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ffd23f;
  --ink: #111111;
  --accent-1: #ff5a36;
  --accent-2: #e60033;
  --accent-3: #2ec4b6;
  --accent-4: #cdb4ff;
  --font-display: "Zen Maru Gothic", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}

The two styles

A pastel homepage titled “Cloudy Days” features smiling clouds, a rabbit, a cat, and a rainbow surrounded by hearts, stars, and colorful squiggles. A rounded navigation bar sits above the illustration, with four illustrated pastel tiles across the bottom.

1970–present · East Asia Kawaii Design Japan's culture of cuteness, which grew from 1970s teenage rounded handwriting and shōjo fancy goods into a global design language through Sanrio, character merchandise and emoji. Its decisions are simple and consistent: rounded forms, oversized heads and minimal faces, pastel or candy colour in flat fields, scattered hearts and sparkles, and friendly rounded type.

A dense geometric pattern on a pink background combines turquoise polka-dot triangles, yellow squares with black dashes, blue circles with yellow sprinkles, orange-red zigzags, and scattered squiggles and small shapes. Bold black offset shapes give many motifs a shadowed, layered appearance.

1981–1988 · Southern Europe Memphis Design The Milan collective founded by Ettore Sottsass, whose furniture, laminates and objects (first shown in September 1981) became a graphic language of their own. Clashing colours, speckles, squiggles, zigzags and primitive geometric shapes were combined with deliberate bad taste, mocking modernist good form while quoting 1950s kitsch, Pop and Art Deco.

More combinations

With Kawaii Design

All 25 combinations with Kawaii Design

With Memphis Design

All 17 combinations with Memphis Design

Every style combination