Stylogeny combining Low Poly Illustration × PS1

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Style combination · Contrasts

Low Poly Illustration × PS1

Both count polygons, but low poly shows clean, untextured flat-shaded facets on bright grounds with a calm tone, while the PSX look wraps its meshes in tiny warping textures, fog and grain to make dread. Keep the facets clean for decoration and dirty them for horror.

From the research on PS1 / Lo-Fi 3D Revival (PSX Aesthetic)

Mix them and make something Low Poly Illustration PS1

AGAINAGAINAGAINLow Poly Illustration × PS12012 · 2015
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Low Poly Illustration, their arrangement from PS1, the finish from PS1. 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.

Low Poly Illustration PS1 / Lo-Fi 3D Revival (PSX Aesthetic)

Type from PS1
Colour from Low Poly Illustration
Form from Low Poly Illustration
Composition from PS1
Surface from PS1

02

The type

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

Display · PS1

Again

Press Start 2P, standing in for Bitmap and pixel fonts in capitals for menus and HUDs, in the manner of the PlayStation demo-disc and Namco Museum front ends the Haunted PS1 Demo Discs model their menus on (a working description: the scene has no settled typeface canon)

Text · Low Poly Illustration

A digital illustration and game look in which subjects are built from a visible mesh of a few flat-shaded polygons, so that animals, faces, vehicles and landscapes read as hard-edged facets with no outline or texture. Around 2012 the polygon budgets of early real-time 3D became a chosen style, in Timothy J. Reynolds's Cinema 4D illustrations and then in indie games such as MirrorMoon EP (2013). Triangulation tools such as Trianglify then carried it into 2D vector art, posters and web backgrounds.

Jost; Low Poly Illustration used Faceted display faces that replace every curve with straight segments, such as Ray Larabie's Alphii (Typodermic, 2006), which in the foundry's words 'does not imitate a mesh or toolpath; it shares their economy' and A clean geometric sans set flat beside the faceted picture, so the letters stay legible while the mesh carries the image

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Low Poly Illustration, with a counter-accent from PS1. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Low Poly Illustration PS1 / Lo-Fi 3D Revival (PSX Aesthetic)

  • #f1e8d0 ground · 36%
  • #163a4f ink · 14%
  • #e8704f accent · 18%
  • #6b1d16 accent · 14%
  • #3fa58a accent · 10%
  • #5c5446 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f1e8d0;
  --ink: #163a4f;
  --accent-1: #e8704f;
  --accent-2: #6b1d16;
  --accent-3: #3fa58a;
  --accent-4: #5c5446;
  --font-display: "Press Start 2P", monospace;
  --font-text: "Jost", sans-serif;
}

04

The two styles

A faceted geometric illustration shows a hiker with an orange backpack standing on a rocky cliff above a winding river, evergreen forests, and mountain peaks. A large pale sun hangs over the valley beneath the word “FURTHER.” 2012–present · Global / networked Low Poly Illustration A digital illustration and game look in which subjects are built from a visible mesh of a few flat-shaded polygons, so that animals, faces, vehicles and landscapes read as hard-edged facets with no outline or texture. Around 2012 the polygon budgets of early real-time 3D became a chosen style, in Timothy J. Reynolds's Cinema 4D illustrations and then in indie games such as MirrorMoon EP (2013). Triangulation tools such as Trianglify then carried it into 2D vector art, posters and web backgrounds. A dark, blocky illustration shows a blood-streaked wooden walkway winding along steep cliffs toward a stone building with a lit doorway. A pale moon hangs over misty rock spires and a distant arched bridge beneath the jagged title “HOLLOW RIDGE.” 2015–present · North America, Western Europe, Global / networked PS1 / Lo-Fi 3D Revival (PSX Aesthetic) Indie games and their artwork that rebuild the look of late-1990s console and PC 3D on modern engines: few polygons, tiny low-resolution textures that warp as the original PlayStation's affine-only mapping did, dithering, grain and distance fog over murky, dark earth tones. Puppet Combo's horror games 'modeled after early PlayStation games and VHS' and Dusk's Quake-like shooter set it going; the Haunted PS1 community made it a scene, with game jams and digital Demo Discs whose menus and manual booklets imitate the era's demo discs.

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More combinations

With Low Poly Illustration

With PS1

Every style combination