# Synthwave / Outrun

> 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.

- Period: 2006–present
- Where: Global / networked, Western Europe, Northern Europe, North America, Oceania
- Origin: Mid-2000s French electro and house producers (Kavinsky, College, later Perturbator) and online synthesizer-music communities, joined by Swedish, Australian, North American and other producers, game studios and illustrators; named after Sega's arcade racer Out Run (1986), anticipated by the 1980s film culture of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) and carried into the mainstream by the film Drive (2011)
- Branch: Digital native
- Also known as: Outrun, Retrowave
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/synthwave-outrun/

## Use it with care

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.

## How it works

- Run a glowing wireframe grid in one-point perspective to a horizon at the centre, so the flat picture opens into deep space.
- Set a large sun disc on that horizon, graded from yellow to magenta and cut by horizontal bands, against a dark or starry sky.
- Light everything as if at night: magenta, cyan and violet glow on near-black, with sunset gradients instead of flat colour.
- Make the title a chrome-bevelled logotype with star glints, and pair it with a hot-pink brush script.
- Line the horizon with silhouettes of palm trees, sports cars, city skylines or wireframe mountains, painted or airbrushed like a 1980s film poster.
- Finish with VHS tracking noise, scanlines and grain, and treat the decade with affection, even when the pastiche is played for laughs, rather than critique.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (defining)
- [Full bleed](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-bleed/) (characteristic)
- [Diagonal axis](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/diagonal-axis/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Illusion of depth](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/illusion-of-depth/) (defining)
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (characteristic)

### Typography
- [Ornamented display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornamented-display/) (characteristic)
- [Script](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/script/) (characteristic)
- [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (characteristic)
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (characteristic)
- [Geometric sans](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-sans/) (occasional)
- [Wide letterspacing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/wide-letterspacing/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Fluorescent & neon](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/fluorescent-and-neon/) (defining)
- [Dark ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dark-ground/) (defining)
- [Gradients](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/gradients/) (defining)
- [Analogous harmony](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/analogous-harmony/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Geometric primitives](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-primitives/) (characteristic)
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (characteristic)
- [Naturalistic depiction](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/naturalistic-depiction/) (occasional)
- [Angular & zigzag](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Chrome & 3D render](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/chrome-and-3d-render/) (defining)
- [Glitch](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/glitch/) (characteristic)
- [Painterly brushwork](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-brushwork/) (characteristic)
- [Gloss & highlights](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/gloss-and-highlights/) (characteristic)
- [Grain & noise](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/grain-and-noise/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Cosmic & celestial](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/cosmic-and-celestial/) (defining)
- [Rules & bars](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rules-and-bars/) (characteristic)
- [Restrained accents](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/restrained-accents/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [3D render](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/3d-render/) (characteristic)
- [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (characteristic)
- [Flat vector illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-vector-illustration/) (characteristic)
- [Treated photography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/treated-photography/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Motion & broadcast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/motion-and-broadcast/) (characteristic)
- [Web & CSS](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/web-and-css/) (characteristic)
- [Offset printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/offset-printing/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Nostalgic & retro](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/nostalgic-and-retro/) (defining)
- [Technological & futurist](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/technological-and-futurist/) (characteristic)
- [Romantic & sensual](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/romantic-and-sensual/) (characteristic)
- [Utopian & idealistic](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/utopian-and-idealistic/) (occasional)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (occasional)
- [Luxurious & glamorous](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/luxurious-and-glamorous/) (occasional)
- [Ironic & self-aware](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ironic-and-self-aware/) (occasional)

Avoids: Pastel, Light ground, Earth & mineral, Modular grid, Horror vacui, Paper & letterpress bite, Collage & layering, Rational & objective

Palette: #0d0221, #3d1a78, #ff2a6d, #05d9e8, #ff9f1c, #ffd319

Typefaces: Mistral (Roger Excoffon, Fonderie Olive, 1953), the brush script set in hot pink for the Drive poster title, Custom chrome-bevelled, airbrushed logotypes with star glints, after 1980s film-poster and arcade titles, Italic, wide techno display capitals with speed lines and neon outlines

Known for: Sega (designer Yu Suzuki), Out Run (arcade, 1986): the namesake and a precursor, a Ferrari Testarossa convertible racer with stages inspired by Suzuki's drive through Europe and a selectable soundtrack that gave outrun music its name; its own sprite-scaled visuals are not yet the neon-grid look; Kavinsky (Vincent Belorgey), 'Nightcall' (Record Makers, 2010) and the album OutRun (2013), built on the persona of a driver who crashed his Testarossa in 1986; Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2011): hot-pink title sequence, Mistral-script poster title, and Kavinsky's 'Nightcall' and College & Electric Youth's 'A Real Hero' on the soundtrack; James White (Signalnoise), hot-pink tribute poster for Drive (2011), made official by FilmDistrict, and the Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon box art (2013); Dennaton Games (Jonatan Söderström and Dennis Wedin), Hotline Miami (Devolver Digital, 2012), set in Miami in 1989, with cover art by Niklas Åkerblad; Ubisoft Montreal, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (2013), a 'retro-futuristic parody' and 'an 80s VHS vision of the future', with a soundtrack by the Australian duo Power Glove; Ariel Zucker-Brull, the artwork that sets the dystopian tone of Dangerous Days (Blood Music and Telefuture, 2014) by Perturbator, the Parisian musician James Kent; David Sandberg, Kung Fury (2015), a crowdfunded martial-arts comedy given videotape-wear effects, scored by the Swedish synthwave musicians Mitch Murder and Lost Years

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Influenced by: [Bitmap & Pixel Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/bitmap-pixel.md) (1977–1995)
- Alike in its design choices: [Demoscene Graphics (Cracktros, Demos & Text-Mode Art)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/demoscene-graphics.md) (1985–present), 61% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Art Deco](https://stylogeny.com/styles/art-deco.md) (1910–1939), 57% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Generative-AI Image Aesthetic](https://stylogeny.com/styles/ai-image-aesthetic.md) (2022–present), 55% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Afrofuturist Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/afrofuturism.md) (1970–present), 54% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Streamline Moderne](https://stylogeny.com/styles/streamline-moderne.md) (1930–1945), 50% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Vaporwave](https://stylogeny.com/styles/vaporwave.md) (2011–2017), 50% alike

## Sources

- Jakub Kaczyński, 'Music, Aesthetics, and Nostalgia: Ideological Appropriations of Digital Audiovisual Trends', Roczniki Humanistyczne 73, no. 12 (2025), https://doi.org/10.18290/rh257312.14 (synthwave's mid-2000s emergence from French house, Kavinsky and Perturbator as early flag-bearers, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City as a pivotal moment after Nicholas Diak, Drive, its neon colour, VHS effects, lightning bolts, 3D grid and neon-sun motifs, and fashwave)
- David Hornyak, 'Anytime but now. Das kulturelle Umfeld von Synthwave', BA thesis, Universität zu Köln (2019): https://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/53592
- Wikipedia: 'Synthwave' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthwave), 'Out Run' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_Run), 'Kavinsky' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kavinsky), 'Drive (2011 film)' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_(2011_film)) and 'Perturbator' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perturbator)
- Wikipedia: 'Mistral (typeface)' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistral_(typeface)), 'Hotline Miami' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotline_Miami), 'Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_Cry_3:_Blood_Dragon) and 'Kung Fury' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_Fury)
- 'Inspired and Uninspired "Drive"', FWD Labs blog (15 February 2012), https://fwdlabs.com/blog/?p=2853 (quotes James White of Signalnoise on his hot-pink Drive tribute poster and the deal with FilmDistrict to make it official)
- Lars Gotrich, 'Replicants Live On In Perturbator's Dark Synths', NPR All Songs Considered (16 May 2014), https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2014/05/16/312201247/vikings-choice-replicants-live-on-in-perturbators-dark-synths (Ariel Zucker-Brull credited as the Dangerous Days artist)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Synthwave / Outrun”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/synthwave-outrun/