The 1980s style is a fresh and young style with a lot of attitude. The 1980s style is a new, energetic and vibrant design that combines the softness from fashion from the 1970s with the edginess from the 1960s. It is most popular among teenagers and young adults who are looking for something different in their clothing.
In terms of design styles used not only in fashion, but also in terms of typography and graphic designs, the 1980s had a lot of influence in the design world.
Particularly, the ‘80s is all about abstract geometric shapes and lines that will make your designs bold and cool. The most classic geometric shapes that appeared during the 80’s are circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles. In addition to these shapes, you can also use trapezoids and rhombuses which are very popular among designers.
Here are some popular trends in 1980s design:
Tropical, Neon Wave Design Style
This style is all about the neon colors. Neon blue, pink and green are common colors in this style, as well as shades evoking the sunset or the sunrise. You will commonly also see tropical aspects in this design style, including palm trees and the ocean.
When the tropical design style was truly flourishing with a huge amount of artistic talent, it was definitely during the 80s. Palm trees and neon pastels adorned every part of the display, from t-shirt prints to illustrations and posters of popular films. One of the most easily recognizable works of using this type of style is Yoko Honda. You can also see notes of this style in video game and movie designs, such as Hotline Miami. Retro Wave is a font that also depicts this design style.
Retro and Deco Design Style
This style is all about the old school designs. Deco and retro designs are very popular among designers because they are so unique and creative. They have a lot of attention to detail, which is why they are so much fun to create and wear.
Art deco is a style of visual arts that combines modernist styles with fine craftsmanship. As far as graphic design goes, the 80s deco style is defined by clean, sans-serif fonts, which will put an emphasis on crisp angles and curves. Drop shadows and outer glows were also very common and helped to embolden the text. The deco style of the 1980s can be found, for example, in the title design for Miami Vice.
Futuristic and Cyberpunk Design Style
The cyberpunk design style was also all the rave in the 1980s. It basically represents a futuristic concept that isn’t really all that grounded in reality; instead, it represents the idea of the future as thought by the people of that decade. The 80s was known as the decade of science fiction, which is why it also has a lot of futuristic and sci-fi themes in its graphics.
Examples of works of literature that incorporated the cyberpunk design that flourished in the 1980s include Blade Runner (1982) and even The Matrix (1999) that came out way past the 80s.
