# Retro futurist — style recipe

## The idea

- The future as people imagined it decades ago: deep space blues, neon glows, wide geometric type and scan lines.

## Use it when

- Games, events and night-life
- Music and entertainment launches
- Playful tech products with a sense of nostalgia

## Avoid it when

- The brand must feel calm or traditional
- Readability of long text is the top priority

## Principles

- A deep space-blue background
- Wide geometric display type, often uppercase
- Neon pink and cyan glows on edges and text
- Horizon grids, stars and scan-line textures
- Chrome-like gradients only on small details
- Rounded rectangles like old screens

## Colour

- Deep space (background): #0b0b2b
- Night console (surface): #16164a
- Starlight (text): #e8f0ff
- Moon dust (muted): #a9b4d6
- Neon pink (accent): #ff4fd8
- Laser cyan (accent-2): #33e1ff
- Grid line (border): #2d2d7a
- Text on background contrast: 16.72:1

## Type

- Headings: Orbitron, weights 700, 900 — Wide and geometric; uppercase, generous tracking
- Body: Exo 2, weights 400, 600 — Techy but readable
- Scale: 14px, 16px, 20px, 28px, 44px, 72px
- A wide display face with a readable techno sans.

## Spacing and shape

- Base unit: 8px
- Spacing steps: 8px, 16px, 24px, 48px, 80px
- Panels like screens, spaced evenly.
- Corner radii: 8px, 16px
- Borders: 1–2 px neon lines with a soft glow
- Shadows: Coloured glows instead of dark shadows

## Imagery and motion

- Imagery: Perspective grids, planets, stars and simple geometric spacecraft drawn in CSS or SVG.
- Motion: Flickers, slow glows and gentle drifting stars.

## Do

- Glow the important edges
- Use the perspective horizon grid once
- Keep body text plain for reading

## Don't

- No warm earthy colours
- No thin serif type
- No glow on every element