Image source: Left: Adobe Stock/ FluxVFX. We’re seeing a lot of elements in this trend like little speech bubbles or screen pop-ups.” “You notice how embedded tech has become. “When you use filters in Snapchat or TikTok, and stickers in Instagram, for example, it’s allowing you to marry and visually represent the incorporation of technology in your life,” says Molloy. Putting stickers on top of video - overlaying flat graphic elements on top of the physical world - offers a visual mash-up of old and new, physical and digital. The rise of augmented reality has made stickers more useful and popular than ever, allowing us to add cartoony graphics to everything around us, even if only through a screen. ![]() “People are now used to using digital stickers in their social media apps to embellish and lay out their Instagram stories, and things like that.” “The Vintage Vaporwave trend is heavily reliant on media involvement and all the new technology that people are constantly using,” says Molloy. Designers are often deploying those shadows and outlines to add depth to otherwise very flat compositions, to suggest 3D space, and to create digital stickers. Pixel-art and pixelated text are common visual cues of Vintage Vaporwave, along with heavy outlines, isometric shapes, extruded lettering, grids and dots, and strong, graphic shadows. Palette: Adobe Stock/ A New Wave in Vintage Vaporwave. Image source: Clockwise from top: Adobe Stock/ grumbus. ![]() Some, like Studio Cult, enlist Vintage Vaporwave colors and branding alongside winking, retro references (as in their Frozen Cursor pin and happy face jewelry). A natural fit for children’s wear (as demonstrated by Danish it-brand Soft Gallery), trendsetters like sustainable fashion brand Girlfriend Collective prove these palettes can appeal across age and gender demographics. ![]() Fashion brands in particular have run with these bright, pastel, and retro-inspired hues, updated for the present. That means while there is still plenty of 80s and 90s neon, it is mixed and paired with candy-coated pastels and set off by black and white or neutral tones. It’s a little bit more Y2K, less cyberpunk.” “Vintage Vaporwave is a little bit softer. “What makes it really aesthetically different are the color palettes,” says Shea Molloy, vectors and illustrations lead at Adobe Stock. Trending color palettes convey the emotional shift that many are feeling now. Whether that means spending more time outdoors (a very popular response we explore in our 2021 visual trend, Breath of Fresh Air) or immersing ourselves in fantasy and video games, people have been taking their joy wherever they can find it. After a year filled with frustration, burnout, and isolation, many have been actively seeking ways to escape. Pandemic fatigue may offer a clue to the reason for this lighthearted shift in cultural consciousness. Image source: Left: Adobe Stock/ Summer Candy. That game is particularly emblematic of a larger cultural appetite for retro, pixel-art imagery (and its trendy 3D counterpart, voxel art) in games, with simple, addictive gameplay, and a funny, tongue-in-cheek attitude (you do get to sneakily sabotage your friends - unless they hurl you into space first). ![]() Some of that playfulness carries over from games, especially the popular mobile games many play on their phones.ĭuring the pandemic, while social distancing made in-person game nights unsafe and shelter-in-place had many of us missing our friends, group online games like Among Us rose in popularity. We also noticed this tendency in another of our 2020 design trends, Semi Surreal. One differentiator of this trend is a pervasive sense of humor, ranging from sweet to dryly ironic.
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