Trending
Design Studio
Incredible Retro 80’s Inspired Synthwave & Outrun Artwork
This awesome collection of retro futuristic synthwave art will make you feel nostalgic for the 80’s. Get ready to feast your eyes on laser grids, neon sunsets, palm trees, polygon mountains and lots of chrome!
What is synthwave?
The term synthwave is used to describe both a genre of electronic music and a visual art style. Synthwave art and music has a retro vibe inspired by 80’s b-grade action movies and TV shows.
Many 80’s cinematic masterpieces such as Escape from New York, Robocop, Tron and Miami Vice have elements of synthwave that you can easily recognize in the soundtrack, logos, titles, color palettes and lighting.
What does synthwave music sound like?
Synthesizers, drum machines, snares and other cool 80’s instruments dominate the synthwave sound. Originally it was almost entirely instrumental but modern tracks often include a vocal track.
This YouTube mix includes all the top synthwave artists and will give you a great taste for what the music is all about.
When did synthwave start?
Synthwave has been around since the late 70’s and 80’s but the term wasn’t coined until the early 2000’s when a small group of musicians started producing electronic music to pay homage to the original 80’s style. These artists included David Grellier, Electric Youth and Kavinsky.
Synthwave music and art has grown in popularity ever since and has even earned mainstream appeal. The 2011 movie Drive has a synthwave soundtrack (featuring all the artists called out above) and visual aesthetic. The movie Thor Ragnarok and the hit TV show Stranger Things are also great examples of modern synthwave.
Outrun vs synthwave vs retrowave
You’ll often hear synthwave referred to as retrowave or outrun. It’s fine to describe synthwave using any of these synonyms but there are some subtle differences.
Retrowave is often used to describe modern music that mimics the original vibe of synthwave and is often described as a sub genre of synthwave.
The name outrun originates from the mid 80’s Sega racing video game of the same name. The outrun art style is very similar to synthwave but the imagery is often focused on driving, fast cars and motorcycles.
The synthwave art style explained
When you’re looking at synthwave or outrun artwork, the 80’s nostalgic vibe bleeds off the page or screen. Any child of the 80’s who was interested in movies, video games and popular culture will instantly recognise it – even if they can’t pinpoint exactly why.
Synthwave art is dominated by black, dark blue and purple offset with splashes of bright neon pink, yellow and orange. Common motifs include laser grids, polygonal shapes (often landscapes or mountains), neon sunsets and reflections.
Text and logos are often rendered to look like chrome, along with pink or blue neon secondary text.
Futuristic cities, robots, vehicles and spaceships are common themes and people in the scene often tend to reinforce a sense of loneliness or isolation.
The outrun art style explained
Outrun artwork features all the dark and neon stylistic elements of synthwave but the imagery focuses more on cars and driving and has an even more retro futuristic feel.
80’s sports cars and motorcycles are often depicted, particularly the Ferrari Testarossa featured in the original outrun video game. Yellow, orange and pink neon sunsets (often with horizontal cuts) are almost always included along with palm tree silhouettes.
An even greater sense of loneliness (or freedom?) often shines through in outrun artwork.
Synthwave & outrun artist showcase
Eduardo Del Pozo
Eduardo Del Pozo is an art director and graphic designer from Barcelona, Spain.
Flore Maquin
Flore Maquin is a graphic designer from Lyon, France. She does a lot of movie related art and has previously worked for Universal Pictures, Paramount as well as many amazing French companies.
James White
James White goes by the moniker Signal Noise and resides in Dartmouth, Canada. James has worked with pretty much ever big company you can think of including Google, Adobe and Nike.
Kenzo Deckard
Kenso Deckard is a freelance graphic artist from Milan, Italy.
Liam Wong
Liam Wong is an art director and photographer originally from Scotland. When he’s not taking surreal sci-fi inspired photographs of Tokyo, he’s art directing massive Ubisoft games like Far Cry and Assassins Creed.
Ralf Krause
Ralf Krause is an art director from Recklinghausen, Germany.
Sakke Soini
Sakke Soini is a graphic designer from Finland. He’s worked with famous brands such as Nike and Ray-Ban.
Sam Todhunter
Sam Todhunter is a freelance graphic artist from Irvine, USA. He’s done amazing work for many synthwave bands as well as big names like DC comics.
The Zonders
The Zonders are a group of artists based in Berlin, Germany.
Synthwave art in video games
The appearance of outrun and synthwave art in video games started with the 1986 Sega game Outrun. As synthwave has gained popularity the style has started appearing in many more video games with big and small budgets. The most famous example would have to be the 2013 Ubisoft game Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.
Outrun
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Drift Stage
Cyberpunk 2097
Synthwave in modern movies and TV
The synthwave aesthetic was born in the 80’s but the style has found it’s way into many recent films and TV shows. A few examples are listed below.
Drive
Stranger Things
Thor Ragnarok
Blade Runner 2047
Kung Fury
Miami Vice
Moonbeam City
Only God Forgives
Escape from New York
Robocop
This awesome collection of retro futuristic synthwave art will make you feel nostalgic for the 80’s. Get ready to feast your eyes on laser grids, neon sunsets, palm trees, polygon mountains and lots of chrome!
What is synthwave?
The term synthwave is used to describe both a genre of electronic music and a visual art style. Synthwave art and music has a retro vibe inspired by 80’s b-grade action movies and TV shows.
Many 80’s cinematic masterpieces such as Escape from New York, Robocop, Tron and Miami Vice have elements of synthwave that you can easily recognize in the soundtrack, logos, titles, color palettes and lighting.
What does synthwave music sound like?
Synthesizers, drum machines, snares and other cool 80’s instruments dominate the synthwave sound. Originally it was almost entirely instrumental but modern tracks often include a vocal track.
This YouTube mix includes all the top synthwave artists and will give you a great taste for what the music is all about.
When did synthwave start?
Synthwave has been around since the late 70’s and 80’s but the term wasn’t coined until the early 2000’s when a small group of musicians started producing electronic music to pay homage to the original 80’s style. These artists included David Grellier, Electric Youth and Kavinsky.
Synthwave music and art has grown in popularity ever since and has even earned mainstream appeal. The 2011 movie Drive has a synthwave soundtrack (featuring all the artists called out above) and visual aesthetic. The movie Thor Ragnarok and the hit TV show Stranger Things are also great examples of modern synthwave.
Outrun vs synthwave vs retrowave
You’ll often hear synthwave referred to as retrowave or outrun. It’s fine to describe synthwave using any of these synonyms but there are some subtle differences.
Retrowave is often used to describe modern music that mimics the original vibe of synthwave and is often described as a sub genre of synthwave.
The name outrun originates from the mid 80’s Sega racing video game of the same name. The outrun art style is very similar to synthwave but the imagery is often focused on driving, fast cars and motorcycles.
The synthwave art style explained
When you’re looking at synthwave or outrun artwork, the 80’s nostalgic vibe bleeds off the page or screen. Any child of the 80’s who was interested in movies, video games and popular culture will instantly recognise it – even if they can’t pinpoint exactly why.
Synthwave art is dominated by black, dark blue and purple offset with splashes of bright neon pink, yellow and orange. Common motifs include laser grids, polygonal shapes (often landscapes or mountains), neon sunsets and reflections.
Text and logos are often rendered to look like chrome, along with pink or blue neon secondary text.
Futuristic cities, robots, vehicles and spaceships are common themes and people in the scene often tend to reinforce a sense of loneliness or isolation.
The outrun art style explained
Outrun artwork features all the dark and neon stylistic elements of synthwave but the imagery focuses more on cars and driving and has an even more retro futuristic feel.
80’s sports cars and motorcycles are often depicted, particularly the Ferrari Testarossa featured in the original outrun video game. Yellow, orange and pink neon sunsets (often with horizontal cuts) are almost always included along with palm tree silhouettes.
An even greater sense of loneliness (or freedom?) often shines through in outrun artwork.
Synthwave & outrun artist showcase
Eduardo Del Pozo
Eduardo Del Pozo is an art director and graphic designer from Barcelona, Spain.
Flore Maquin
Flore Maquin is a graphic designer from Lyon, France. She does a lot of movie related art and has previously worked for Universal Pictures, Paramount as well as many amazing French companies.
James White
James White goes by the moniker Signal Noise and resides in Dartmouth, Canada. James has worked with pretty much ever big company you can think of including Google, Adobe and Nike.
Kenzo Deckard
Kenso Deckard is a freelance graphic artist from Milan, Italy.
Liam Wong
Liam Wong is an art director and photographer originally from Scotland. When he’s not taking surreal sci-fi inspired photographs of Tokyo, he’s art directing massive Ubisoft games like Far Cry and Assassins Creed.
Ralf Krause
Ralf Krause is an art director from Recklinghausen, Germany.
Sakke Soini
Sakke Soini is a graphic designer from Finland. He’s worked with famous brands such as Nike and Ray-Ban.
Sam Todhunter
Sam Todhunter is a freelance graphic artist from Irvine, USA. He’s done amazing work for many synthwave bands as well as big names like DC comics.
The Zonders
The Zonders are a group of artists based in Berlin, Germany.
Synthwave art in video games
The appearance of outrun and synthwave art in video games started with the 1986 Sega game Outrun. As synthwave has gained popularity the style has started appearing in many more video games with big and small budgets. The most famous example would have to be the 2013 Ubisoft game Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.
Outrun
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Drift Stage
Cyberpunk 2097
Synthwave in modern movies and TV
The synthwave aesthetic was born in the 80’s but the style has found it’s way into many recent films and TV shows. A few examples are listed below.
Drive
Stranger Things
Thor Ragnarok
Blade Runner 2047
Kung Fury
Miami Vice
Moonbeam City
Only God Forgives
Escape from New York
Robocop
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
