Stylogeny combining Kawaii Design × VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics

Try

Style combination · Contrasts

Kawaii Design × VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics

Its parent in cute character culture, but kawaii fixes a static mascot on pastel goods and print; switch to VTuber graphics when the character has to move, talk and answer a live chat, with a performer's voice and a whole stream screen around it.

From the research on VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics

Mix them and make something Kawaii Design VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics

Yay!Yay!Kawaii Design × VTuber Avatar1970 · 2016
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Kawaii Design, their arrangement from VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics, the finish from VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

01

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 VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics

Type from Kawaii Design
Colour from Kawaii Design
Form from Kawaii Design
Composition from VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics
Surface from VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics

02

The type

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

Display · Kawaii Design

Yay!

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

Text · 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.

Zen Maru Gothic; Kawaii Design used Maru-ji and Maru Gothic rounded type

03

The colours

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

Kawaii Design VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics

  • #fff4a3 ground · 36%
  • #141414 ink · 14%
  • #e60033 accent · 18%
  • #5bc8f5 accent · 14%
  • #a8d8ff accent · 10%
  • #ff7eb6 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #fff4a3;
  --ink: #141414;
  --accent-1: #e60033;
  --accent-2: #5bc8f5;
  --accent-3: #a8d8ff;
  --accent-4: #ff7eb6;
  --font-display: "Zen Maru Gothic", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Zen Maru Gothic", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics: VTuber characters are owned designs, by agencies or by the performers who commissioned them, and early contracts often gave the character's rights to the company, so performers who left had to start again as someone new: draw an original persona rather than a look-alike of Kizuna AI, Hololive or Nijisanji characters, and credit the illustrator ('mama') and the rigger ('papa'). The performer's anonymity is part of the form, so never attach a real person's face, name or photograph to an avatar or speculate about who is 'inside'. Do not default to a sexualised cute-girl type: scholars argue that avatar idols perpetuate female stereotypes and that the virtual idol industry commercialises sexism (Lu et al., CHI 2021).

04

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. 2016–present · East Asia, Global / networked VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics The graphic kit of virtual YouTubers, streamers who perform behind an animated anime-style character instead of their own face. An illustrator (the 'mama') designs a persona whose costume and colours tell its story and draws it in separable layers; a rigger turns it into a Live2D or 3D model that blinks, turns and lip-syncs with the performer's tracked face. On stream the half-length figure sits over game footage or a themed backdrop among chat and alert panels, framed by a name logo, overlays and thumbnails in its colours.

05

More combinations

With Kawaii Design

All 25 combinations with Kawaii Design

With VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics

All 10 combinations with VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics

Every style combination