The Basics of Vaporwave Aesthetics - Optics

The Basics of Vaporwave Aesthetics

Birthed from the mix of noise music, 90’s pop, and copyright issues, vaporwave has seen its fair share of the internet. Its visuals became well known for accompanying the movement of appropriating music, becoming a meme, and has now been popularized with its one subgenre. Along with the rise of vaporwave music artists, designers and dedicated visual artists that took interest in the genre became more and more common. As many subgenres emerged from vaporwave, many more types of aesthetics related to vaporwave began to become more and more prominent. The main cause could vaporwave's broad appeal. It sparks curiosity and a soft sense of nostalgia in the viewer. It's not rare to see a reference or even a dedicated artist testing out their skills with a bit of a retro theme or surrealist type of vaporwave. It certainly is a good place to start your own style as it, not only has a big community of people to help you out but is a very basic way to get some grounding in the art community. Even though many people see vaporwave aesthetics as a collection of art styles, it's usually not clear how each visual genre is different or why certain types might appeal to more people. That’s why in this article, we’ll break down a few types of vaporwave aesthetics, what they represent, and how you could make some yourself.

“Classic” Vaporwave Collage

Going back to the roots of what made vaporwave (back to a time before it was coined vaporwave), It was usual to see an album cover that is simply an appropriated cluster of obscure references that reflected the style of music seen in the albums. During this time, vaporwave was just beginning as a genre and it’s greatest examples are covers from the mid-2000s. The consensus was very simple. A college or edit of specific things from the two previous decades that gave you this awkward sense of nostalgia and appropriate it. These collages contain either little to no resemblance of colour theme as seen in Chuck Person’s Eccojams, or have striking yet calm tones shown in Vektroid’s (Macintosh Plus) Floral Shoppe. Along with these colour themes, many items can be seen used widespread in not only albums but the artwork is seen almost a decade later. Items such as old hardware from the late 80s and throughout the 90s, games, icons from early operating systems, palm trees derived from a Miami aesthetic. While all of these have certainly survived the test of the time none have become as iconic in the community as historical Greek busts, sone of which have become the mascot of the genre.

“Modern” Vaporwave Collage

I feel as if it is appropriate to differentiate the more common art style from what inspired it. It becomes slightly common to see vaporwave made with more original ideas, unique items, and self-made 3D graphics rather than simply piecing together nostalgic imagery and copyrighted visuals. Along with the change in philosophies behind the imagery, many items became used along with the classic icons. Some became widespread such as FIJI Water, Japanese anime characters, psychedelic visuals, and text (usually negative in connotation). Along with the those, many filters are used commonly atop the visuals. Glitches, and VHS overlays.

Glitchwave

Glitches not only have widespread use of newer vaporwave collages and art styles but have their own dedicated art style and music sub-genre. Glitchwave is most prominently seen with pink and blue visuals or with the icons mentioned on the page before. Glitches can give reference vaporware (the term vaporwave was derived from) when combined with the early 2000s 3D visuals. Not only is it simple computer glitches, but rough VHS tears, simple error messages, corrupted textures, and classic OS blue-screens are used to set a surreal and confusing feeling. Along with the involvement in vaporwave collages, it also can be seen in other visual aesthetics.

Mallsoft Aesthetic

Of the vaporwave genre, mallsoft is the relaxing lounge music you might hear playing in a shop’s (or mall’s) overhead speakers. Because of the context, it's common to see mallsoft aesthetics with a focus on empty architecture, retro-looking stores, and pastel building interiors. It's not uncommon to see a VHS grain and marking text to accompany the images. In direct visual contrast to vaporwave's more common collages, mallsoft aesthetics can be very simplistic and minimalistic. Sometimes, mallsoft could just be a white set of stairs with a pastel pink light source. Unlike many other types of vaporwave aesthetics, mallsoft is centrally focused on a single image with slight modification.

Vaporpop

Vaporwave has always drawn from the 80s and 90s aesthetics. Vaporpop’s visuals are a direct throwback to the abstract geometric themes from the late 80s/early 90s. Simple shapes and designs relying on the basic principles of design and only using complex objects for visual contrast combined with a pale yet striking colour palette are the most popular ways to depict this type of aesthetic. Along with soft colours and simple geometry, retro logos, references to classic pop bands, and simple patterns can be seen in the visual genre. Vaporpop aesthetics are also common in album covers, cassette covers, advertisements, and they make pretty decent digital wallpapers.

Fashwave

Fashwave has become known for its taboo and controversial style of using vaporwave aesthetics to depict far-right ideals. While it's not new for individuals of any political stance or community to create their own spin on certain visuals, this has garnered enough attention to spawn a few albums of itself. Fashwave is usually depicted with modern and ancient politicians alike, some seen with black bars over the eyes and text with slogans, quotes, etc. Many of the visuals include greek busts (some of the ancient politicians mentioned earlier), flags, glitchy visuals of historic events, synthwave backgrounds, and political symbols (of which I won't go much detail into). To put it simply, its vaporwave with far-right p

Simpsonwave

Simsonwave has been widely regarded as a meme from the vaporwave community, but many defend its aesthetic as the “inception of a meta-based genre” due to its apropriation of a television show based around a apropriated music genre.

Hardvapor

Hardvapor (hardvapour) music usually encompasses a heavy bass-like vaporwave style and the visuals directly enhance the theme of it. Usually having dark and surreal colour palettes accompanied by dark quotes, “edgy” figures, and some glitchy visuals. Hardvapor is very reminiscent of hardbass aesthetics, including all but the small touch glitchwave-like visuals

Vaporwave's 'Philosophy'

Vaporwave is a very confusing art form at first glance. The music genre and visual aesthetics go mostly hand-in-hand when it comes to its meta artistic background. Vaporwave pushes the idea that the need for absolute creativity isn't needed to make art and that expensive tools exist only to make art more convenient to make. For example, making vaporwave music usually consists of slowing down and appropriating classic pop songs, most of which can be made on both a cheap setup on FL Studio or with expensive mixing equipment and mainstream proprietary software. The aesthetics are exactly that, just under different circumstances. Using appropriated visuals of greek busts (mainly under fair use due to age), retro company/product logos such as Sony’s PlayStation and Pepsi, outrun-like backgrounds made by other artists, all mixed in with some geometric grids and shapes. A lot of vaporwave aesthetics can be made on something as simple and free as the Pixlr X browser editor or the not-so-cheap professional standards such as Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. Vaporwave, while it sometimes is made using expensive technology and with brand new ideas that don't need appropriation, still stands as a point that a collage of original ideas and inexpensive software can still be used to make aesthetically pleasing art and music.

Making Your Own

Basic vaporwave aesthetics can take very little skill to make, but making pieces that really stand out can take a good bit of it. Along with a broad need for skill, vaporwave has many, many different ways you can style a piece. Making a simple classic college is easier than making an abstract vaporpop aesthetic, but still simpler than making an image of an empty mall with a pink filter. Making a collage takes a bit of context and research from the artist. It's a good idea to look into popular vaporwave art to see what kind of vibe you want your piece to emanate. Most visuals that focus on nostalgia use icons of the late 90s, items reminiscent of old computer hardware/software, bitmap text, and older logos as mentioned before. Maybe you’d like a more condensed collage with a bigger background to give this contrast between minimalism and complexity (as seen on the next page). Vaporpop aesthetics are also popular, built to induce the pop-themed party visuals seen in the 90s. Geometric shapes with bright yet muted colours, usually in patterns or placed randomly. Usually making these takes a bit of background on visual balance, colour theory, and basic design principals. Another popular type of vaporwave aesthetic is mallsoft. While I said earlier that mallsoft can be made simpler, it still is a very versatile aesthetic. Taking a picture of an empty mall and placing a muted pink tint over it will suffice, but mixing it up with some VHS text, some video distortion, and some film grain. Mallsoft can also be done manually, using white clay to build something and using the above filters to make a custom mallsoft aesthetics. Like many other visuals, vaporwave is a very versitile genre.