Kawaii Design × Visual Novel Graphics

Borrow its pastel, rounded decoration for menu and save-screen UI.

From the research on Visual Novel Graphics (Sprites, Backgrounds and Textbox UI)

Mix them and make something Kawaii Design Visual Novel Graphics

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Kawaii Design, their arrangement from Visual Novel Graphics, the finish from Visual Novel Graphics. 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 Visual Novel Graphics (Sprites, Backgrounds and Textbox UI)

Type from Kawaii Design: Rounded sans
Hand-lettering
Colour from Kawaii Design: Pastel
Flat fields
Form from Kawaii Design: Rounded & pill
Stylised figuration
Composition from Visual Novel Graphics: Sequential narrative
Framed panels
Surface from Visual Novel Graphics: Frosted glass

The type

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

Display · Kawaii Design

Wow

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

Text · Visual Novel Graphics

A fixed screen language for interactive reading: anime-derived character sprites stand over painted backgrounds, a semi-transparent textbox runs along the bottom (ADV) or fills the screen (NVL), and full-screen event illustrations replace the scene at dramatic moments. Menus and save screens carry the game's identity. Pacing is set by click, not by scrolling or page turns.

Shippori Mincho; Visual Novel Graphics used Japanese gothic (sans) system fonts for the textbox and Mincho (serif) faces for NVL prose and titles

The colours

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

Kawaii Design Visual Novel Graphics (Sprites, Backgrounds and Textbox UI)

#fff4a3 ground · 36%
#141414 ink · 14%
#e60033 accent · 18%
#e8c872 accent · 14%
#a8d8ff accent · 10%
#cdb4ff accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #fff4a3;
  --ink: #141414;
  --accent-1: #e60033;
  --accent-2: #e8c872;
  --accent-3: #a8d8ff;
  --accent-4: #cdb4ff;
  --font-display: "Zen Maru Gothic", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
}

Use it with care

Visual Novel Graphics (Sprites, Backgrounds and Textbox UI): The commercial novel-game market of the 1990s was built largely on adult (eroge) titles, among them Shizuku and the Leaf, Key and Tactics wave, and many sprite and event-CG conventions grew up there, including sexualised depictions of young-looking characters. Borrow the layout, textbox and layering system rather than that figure vocabulary; keep characters clearly adult and depictions non-sexualised unless the context is explicitly adult.