Style combination · Contrasts

Polish Cold War Neon × Synthwave

Synthwave remembers neon as a glowing grid, chrome and sunset gradients on a screen; the Polish signs were real tubes in one or two colours with no gradients. Use the contrast to keep a neon revival honest to the single line.

From the research on Polish Cold War Neon (PRL Neonisation)

Mix them and make something Polish Cold War Neon Synthwave

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Synthwave, their arrangement from Polish Cold War Neon, the finish from Synthwave. 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.

Polish Cold War Neon (PRL Neonisation) Synthwave / Outrun

Type from Polish Cold War Neon: Script
Hand-lettering
Colour from Polish Cold War Neon: Fluorescent & neon
Dark ground
Form from Synthwave: Cosmic & celestial
Geometric primitives
Composition from Polish Cold War Neon: Isolated object
Single focal point
Surface from Synthwave: Chrome & 3D render
Glitch

Polish Cold War Neon avoids chrome & 3d render: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.

The type

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

Display · Polish Cold War Neon

Future

Yellowtail; Polish Cold War Neon used Artist-drawn script bent from thin glass tube, often a letterform invented for the one sign and composed so finely that it read more as ornament than as ordinary writing (Zieliński and Tarwacka) and Block capitals for rooftop signs, and in the 1970s heavy block letters filled or backlit with tube

Text · Synthwave

The retro-futurist look of synthwave music: a 1980s revival that grew from mid-2000s French electro and online synth scenes, took its other name from Sega's arcade racer Out Run (1986) and reached the mainstream with Drive (2011). Its register runs from the brooding night drives of Kavinsky and Hotline Miami to the affectionate parody of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and Kung Fury. The visuals, settled around 2010–2013, recall the era's film posters, arcades and VHS: a neon grid running to a banded setting sun, chrome logotypes and hot-pink script, palms and sports cars at night, tape noise.

VT323; Synthwave used Mistral (Roger Excoffon, Fonderie Olive, 1953), the brush script set in hot pink for the Drive poster title and Custom chrome-bevelled, airbrushed logotypes with star glints, after 1980s film-poster and arcade titles

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Polish Cold War Neon, with a counter-accent from Synthwave. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Polish Cold War Neon (PRL Neonisation) Synthwave / Outrun

#0d1120 ground · 36%
#f6f1e4 ink · 14%
#ff3b30 accent · 18%
#05d9e8 accent · 14%
#ffc83d accent · 10%
#ff9f1c accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #0d1120;
  --ink: #f6f1e4;
  --accent-1: #ff3b30;
  --accent-2: #05d9e8;
  --accent-3: #ffc83d;
  --accent-4: #ff9f1c;
  --font-display: "Yellowtail", cursive;
  --font-text: "VT323", monospace;
}

Use it with care

Polish Cold War Neon (PRL Neonisation): Draw new names and figures rather than copying surviving signs: Siatkarka is a registered monument by a named designer, the Neon Muzeum restores and relights others in situ, and wordmarks such as Społem, Cepelia and Jubiler are still in use; and remember that these lights advertised the modern city for a one-party state, often over shops whose shelves were empty.

Synthwave / Outrun: Since about 2015 far-right 'fashwave' has appropriated synthwave, setting fascist symbols, classical statues and slogans on neon grids and swapping the classic neon sun for the Nazi Black Sun; keep the sun a plain banded disc, avoid sunwheel, eagle and bust-plus-slogan layouts, and check where borrowed fan art and music come from.