THE FULL SKILL
This is the text the agent reads before it designs.
Essence
Three related looks that imagine the future from the past. Space Age and Googie (about 1945 to the early 1970s, from Southern California roadside architecture; the term goes back to Douglas Haskell, historian Alan Hess dates its heyday after WWII): boomerangs, starbursts, atoms, swooping roofs and hopeful rocket optimism, with an atompunk undertone of Cold War anxiety. 80s synth culture (neon grids, chrome, sunsets) carried the glow of early computing. Vaporwave (2010-2012 on the web; Macintosh Plus, Floral Shoppe, 2011) recycled 80s-90s corporate culture, Windows 95, Japanese text, fullwidth letters and classical busts as ironic, melancholic commentary on consumer capitalism. The shared idea: a future that never arrived, shown with affection or irony. Handle with care: the default AI output (purple-pink neon on black, grid horizon, chrome text) has no point of view.
Visual vocabulary
- Composition: strong central object (sun, planet, boomerang, arch), a horizon line, layered bands, big empty sky. Space Age is bright and symmetric; vaporwave is quieter with blocky windows and lots of air.
Fonts: Righteous, Monoton, Orbitron, Michroma, Syncopate, Jost, Space Grotesk
- Typography: Display Righteous or Syncopate 700 at 64-140 (wide, rounded, optimistic), Monoton only for a few words at 56-90, Orbitron for numerals and tags. Body Jost 400 or Space Grotesk 400 at 16-18. Vaporwave labels use fullwidth caps with spaced letters, small sizes 12-14 only for decoration.
- Color (variables): Space Age: spPaper #F7EBD4 (50 percent), spTeal #1E9C95 (15 percent), spOrange #F2682A (10 percent), spBlue #1D3F8F, spInk #1B1B2B, spYellow #F4C531 (accent). Vaporwave: vwSky #FFB3D9, vwLilac #B7A4FF, vwAqua #78E6D0 (pastels carry the look, 60 percent combined), vwDeep #1D1445 (anchor, 25 percent), vwSun #FF8A5B (accent). Reserve neon glow for one object.
- Shapes: starburst (rotated rectangles around a center), atom orbits (ellipse rings with 3px strokes at three rotations), boomerang (path), half sun with horizontal slit bands (rectangles over an ellipse), perspective grid as 10-14 lines, windows as bordered frames with title bars, arches, isometric tiles, checkerboard. Strokes 2-3px.
- Texture substitute: halftone dots for print feel (Space Age), scan lines as thin low-alpha rectangles for VHS (vaporwave only, 5-8 lines, not across text).
Pego recipes
- Landing hero Space Age (1440 x 800): fill $spPaper; a $spOrange sun of 420 ellipse cut by two paper-colored bars; atom rings in $spBlue around it; headline Righteous 96 in $spInk left, supporting text 20 Jost, one $spTeal pill button; a starburst at 80 px in $spYellow as a single accent.
- Poster / social post (1080 x 1350): sky in $vwSky down to $vwLilac via 4 stacked bands, half sun with slits in $vwSun, horizon grid in $vwDeep strokes, title in fullwidth caps on a window frame (title bar, 2px border) so text sits on a solid surface, small caption in Jost.
- Event page: header as retro window frames, the program as a tidy ticket list on paper, ticket button a rounded rectangle with a boomerang icon. Components: window-frame, ticket-row, orbit-badge.
Pitfalls
- Neon on black with purple-pink gradients, chrome text and a sun: the stock AI vaporwave. Use a paper ground or a deep pastel scheme and one focal glow.
- Glow on every element, glitch on everything, scan lines over text. Keep decorative effects off reading content.
- Pastiche of statue-plus-palm-tree clichés. Ask what the project's story is; the retro element should serve it.
- Wide display type for body copy. Syncopate and Monoton are display only.
- Accessibility: pastel text on pastel ground fails contrast; text uses vwDeep or spInk, and animation must be avoidable.
Pair with
midnight-product or sunlit-pastel tokens and the landing-page and social-media skills. For rounder, glassy tech see y2k-frutiger-aero separately; do not stack both in one design.