Synthwave × Vocaloid Fan Illustration

Neon gradients and night grounds carry the electronic-music mood into a wider scene.

From the research on Vocaloid Fan Illustration (Hatsune Miku Culture)

Mix them and make something Synthwave Vocaloid Fan Illustration

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Vocaloid Fan Illustration, their arrangement from Vocaloid Fan Illustration, 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.

Synthwave / Outrun Vocaloid Fan Illustration (Hatsune Miku Culture)

Type from Synthwave: Ornamented display
Script
Colour from Synthwave: Fluorescent & neon
Dark ground
Form from Vocaloid Fan Illustration: Stylised figuration
Rounded & pill
Composition from Vocaloid Fan Illustration: Single focal point
Surface from Synthwave: Chrome & 3D render
Glitch

The type

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

Display · Synthwave

Future

Monoton, standing in for Italic, wide techno display capitals with speed lines and neon outlines

Text · Vocaloid Fan Illustration

A fan illustration culture around one licensed character, Hatsune Miku, whose turquoise twin tails and synthesizer-sleeve motifs are redrawn for songs, videos and covers. The design is CC BY-NC (per Wikipedia) and fan use runs under Crypton's Piapro Character License, so the character stays licensed property, with commercial use needing Crypton's permission; that openness invited the volume of fan work, while the recurring cyan, pink and interface motifs come from the character design. Unlike vtuber-graphics, an avatar for one streamer, it is a shared character many fans redraw.

Shippori Mincho; Vocaloid Fan Illustration used Rounded and geometric sans-serifs for song titles and Hand-lettered titles in fan cover art

The colours

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

Synthwave / Outrun Vocaloid Fan Illustration (Hatsune Miku Culture)

#0d0221 ground · 36%
#ffd319 ink · 14%
#05d9e8 accent · 18%
#ff6fa5 accent · 14%
#ff9f1c accent · 10%
#39c5bb accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #0d0221;
  --ink: #ffd319;
  --accent-1: #05d9e8;
  --accent-2: #ff6fa5;
  --accent-3: #ff9f1c;
  --accent-4: #39c5bb;
  --font-display: "Monoton", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
}

Use it with care

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.