Vaporwave is a natively digital art movement. It is a countercultural trend that mixes the aesthetic and the auditory with the intention of recovering elements that were once discredited. It was born around 2010, bringing together all the alternative currents that emerged from the 80's until now.

Aesthetics and vaporwave are two totally inherent elements, having developed a highly beautiful and recognizable visual distillation. The images that are used are taken from the mass media, and from movies and series that are part of pop culture. The focus is on bringing and amplifying the feelings of music, through visual images and artistic creativity. Japan, the Hellenistic period and Florida are the fundamental trident that supports the vaporwave branding. The contrast of a classical sculpture with Japanese letters and techno music, generates an attraction never seen and only viable in the crazy world of the internet.   

What is VAPORWAVE AESTHETIC? Vaporwave is a very particular and original subtype of Aesthetic, which has generated a whole series of visual compositions, such as clothes, stickers and wallpapers. In this article we will explain the characteristics of aesthetics and the vaporwave image, with some keys to making and recognizing this fascinating space in the world of fashion. These keys are:

1- Color

The first key would be the chromatic, the color that uses the images, will use mauve, purple tones, this feeling of sunset, referring to this feeling of nostalgia, these colors that normally will appear as soft as pastel. On the contrary, they also appear very saturated, referring to the aesthetics of neon, the disco theme to spaces full of super contrasted and super bright light.

2- Typography

The second key element is the typography, they will use typography styles from the world of science fiction, the reference to the pixel to the digital.

3- Japanese culture

Introduction of elements of Japanese culture will appear on many occasions, characters from video games, anime characters, as well as letters and other characters from the Japanese language. 

4- Technology 1.0

The introduction of digital aesthetics of the web 1.0 era from when there began to be massive accesses to computers and the internet, in these compositions elements that are recovered from the first interfaces of the Windows system, Power Point, Paint are introduced. Something that will also appear a lot is Word art, and the Glitch effect also appears a lot, visually this effect is an interference, an interruption, kind of when the television is turned on and the channel is not well tuned, or these images that were scratched , with the traditional color distortion effect that is not centered but unfolded, this is called double color explosion, which is that the image is divided into two tones, for Vaporwave style, they are usually red and green and red and blue, red and blue in particular return us to all the aesthetics that permeates the style.

5- Devices from the 80s and 90s

Introduction in these compositions of classic technological equipment, technological devices of the 80s and 90s, with the Gameboy, the first PS, old televisions, cassettes, CDs, etc.

6- Classical art

Introduction of elements of classical art, these images will have Greek-Roman busts, columns, different architectural forms, sometimes even symbols of religious art, as always wrapped in that halo of mauve, blue-pink, characteristic of the style. works of art (especially Hellenistic sculpture, Renaissance and Impressionist paintings)

 7- Trademarks

Introduction of brands, in many of the images in the composition you also put classic brands, Adidas, Nike etc.… as always with the distortion and the colors and fonts of the style.

8- Random things

Introduction of random elements in the image, such as animals, sunsets, precarious modeling, weapons, palm trees always in their nostalgic halo.

This, it is seen that vaporwave is based on nostalgia, on bringing back past eras by describing them better than they ever were. Nostalgia is a feeling deeply rooted in the human condition, which, for centuries, has been recreated through novels and poetry. Vaporwave is believed to be the new way for us to express nostalgia in the digital age.

A relevant point that should be made clear is that within the themes that are dealt with in this artistic style is irony, nostalgia and depression, consumerism and globalization and the conflict of the digital against the organic. Such a theme seems to visually treat a postmodern conflict represented through his digital art, in which many times there is talk of a level of confusion in relation to the limits of what is considered virtual versus real. This makes sense, since this Vaporwave style, which we could also consider a new digital subculture, is precisely gestated in the codes of the internet, the web and what is related to virtual space.

This is how we arrive in the locker room; cybernetics, retro designs and architecture, Japanese letters, retro video games, retro brands, neon lights, pastel colors, fluorine colors, black light or ultraviolet light, lasers, fluorescence, retrofuturism, and, although to a lesser extent, anime girls, Californian settings, advertising and images from the 80s (sometimes also from the 90s and 70s), Hellenistic sculpture, sports cars, minimalist and retro architecture with elegant designs are symbols of this style without doubt.