Counterculture · 2016–present · Global / networked, Western Europe, Central Europe
Acid Graphics / New Ugly
Also known as Acid design, New Ugly, Antidesign, Neo-rave graphics
A late-2010s club and poster style that updates 1990s rave graphics with modern 3D tools: liquid-chrome and melting lettering, neo-tribal spikes, wireframes, op-art patterns and acid-green palettes on black, mixed with blackletter and stretched grotesques. Associated with David Rudnick, Studio Cryo and Anja Kaiser and collected on Instagram's @acidgraphix, it overlaps with the 'New Ugly' turn towards deliberate antidesign.
Make something in this styleGet advice in this styleMix it with another style
01
How it works
- Render lettering and symbols as liquid chrome or metallic 3D, then warp, stretch, mirror and melt them.
- Pair acid green, ultraviolet or hot pink with black and silver for a nocturnal, club-lit palette.
- Mix blackletter, ultra-wide grotesques and pixel faces in one composition and break the grid on purpose.
- Decorate with neo-tribal spikes, sparkle stars, wireframe meshes and op-art moiré borrowed from 1990s rave and Y2K graphics.
- Push density and tension until the work looks deliberately 'ugly' against clean corporate minimalism.
European club-music posters and record sleeves, spread via Instagram (@acidgraphix)
02
Its design choices
From Stylogeny’s vocabulary of design choices: defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.
- Layout & composition
- Space & hierarchy
- Typography
- Colour
- Form & shape
- Tone & intent
- Avoids
- Earth & mineral, Pastel, Soft extrusion, Paper & letterpress bite, Classical text block, Ornament-free, Calm & contemplative, Warm & approachable
Palette
#000000#ccff00#c4c4c4#ff1ad9#3d5afe#ffffff
Typefaces
Liquid-chrome and melted custom lettering
Blackletter and neo-gothic display
Ultra-wide grotesques
e.g. Monument Extended
Bitmap and pixel faces
Known for
David Rudnick
Studio Cryo
Mindaugas Gavrilovas
Anja Kaiser
Luigi Brusciano, @acidgraphix Instagram archive
'Acid Graphics Are the New Psychedelia, With a Heady Dose of Cynicism', AIGA Eye on Design
2019
03
Make something in this style
Say what you need, and Stylogeny’s image studio draws it from Acid Graphics / New Ugly’s design choices and checks it against them. It takes about a minute, and you get a link to share.
04
Where it comes from, and what it’s close to
Before it
The style it grew out of, and the styles it borrowed from.
After it
The styles that grew out of it.
No later style in the atlas grew out of it yet.
Alike in its design choices
Styles that make many of the same choices, related or not, besides those above.
05
Real works
Artefacts in museums, libraries and archives that show the style, linked at their source.
- Skechers China project (lettering)Jonathan Castro · undated; reproduced September 2019 (image file saved in Photoshop CC 2018) · Internet Archive Wayback Machine (AIGA Eye on Design)
- Hyper Trance Mafia, graphic for Evian Christ's Trance Party IIIDavid Rudnick · 2014 (Trance Party III, Corsica Studios, London, 31 October 2014; posted to the designer's site 11 April 2017) · Internet Archive Wayback Machine (davidrudnick.org)
- Cry Baby, club-night poster for Institut für Zukunft (Mykki Blanco, Yves Tumor, Perera Elsewhere)Anja Kaiser · 9 October, year not stated (c. 2015–16; image file saved May 2017; reproduced 2019) · Internet Archive Wayback Machine (AIGA Eye on Design)
- Drumstation vs. Eternia, poster for Cross ClubStudio Cryo (Mindaugas Gavrilovas) · 2018 (event 7 December; posted 5 February 2019) · Internet Archive Wayback Machine (studiocryo.tumblr.com)
06
Sources
- AIGA Eye on Design, 'Acid Graphics Are the New Psychedelia, With a Heady Dose of Cynicism' (September 2019)
- AIGA Eye on Design magazine, issue #05, 'Distraction'
How Stylogeny researches and checks a style: where the facts come from.