Stylogeny combining Kawaii Design × Techno-Futurist Graphics

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Style combination · Pairs well

Kawaii Design × Techno-Futurist Graphics

A cute mascot inside a dense techno-corporate layout softens its satire; Groovisions' Chappie is the model.

From the research on Kawaii Design

Drop a flat, cute mascot into a dense corporate-parody layout to soften its satire, as 1990s Tokyo studios did.

From the research on Techno-Futurist Graphics

Mix them and make something Kawaii Design Techno-Futurist Graphics

PopKawaii Design × Techno-Futurist Graphics
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Techno-Futurist Graphics, their arrangement from Kawaii Design, the finish from Techno-Futurist Graphics. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

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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 Techno-Futurist Graphics

Type from Kawaii Design
Colour from Kawaii Design
Form from Techno-Futurist Graphics
Composition from Kawaii Design
Surface from Techno-Futurist Graphics

02

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 · Techno-Futurist Graphics

Electronic-music and video-game graphics of the late 1980s and 1990s that turned corporate modernism into a sci-fi consumer fantasy. Grids, Helvetica, pictograms, barcodes, warning labels and invented corporate logos were recombined with katakana, manga cuteness and early 3D, producing slick, flat, information-saturated surfaces that both celebrated and satirised technology and branding.

Inter; Techno-Futurist Graphics used Helvetica and Eurostile / Microgramma

03

The colours

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

Kawaii Design Techno-Futurist Graphics

  • #fff4a3 ground · 36%
  • #141414 ink · 14%
  • #e60033 accent · 18%
  • #00aeef accent · 14%
  • #a8d8ff accent · 10%
  • #ec008c accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #fff4a3;
  --ink: #141414;
  --accent-1: #e60033;
  --accent-2: #00aeef;
  --accent-3: #a8d8ff;
  --accent-4: #ec008c;
  --font-display: "Zen Maru Gothic", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Inter", sans-serif;
}

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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 futuristic transport poster headed “ORBIT LINK” features a large cyan planet with pink and white orbital rings on a black circular field. Bright geometric icons, a spacecraft silhouette, a world map with routes, technical labels and barcodes fill the surrounding white layout. 1986–2002 · Western Europe, East Asia Techno-Futurist Graphics Electronic-music and video-game graphics of the late 1980s and 1990s that turned corporate modernism into a sci-fi consumer fantasy. Grids, Helvetica, pictograms, barcodes, warning labels and invented corporate logos were recombined with katakana, manga cuteness and early 3D, producing slick, flat, information-saturated surfaces that both celebrated and satirised technology and branding.

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More combinations

With Kawaii Design

All 25 combinations with Kawaii Design

With Techno-Futurist Graphics

Every style combination