Vaporwave
A retro-80s theme: magenta-and-purple energy, sunset accents, and bold type for nostalgic, playful brands.
Build something people love.
A live preview of this theme — every color, font, radius, and shadow you see is rendered straight from its tokens.
Color system
Click any swatch to copy. Contrast graded against WCAG.
Typography
Body sample. Space Grotesk carries running text — readable paragraphs, comfortable measure, and a rhythm that holds up across long pages of content and UI.
Radius, shadow & fonts
Components
Real UI rendered with this theme's tokens.
A surface for grouping content, with the theme's border, radius, and shadow.
Principles, guidelines & component specs
Do's & don'ts, spacing, motion, iconography, accessibility, and exact component specs — all in the design.md too.
Do
- •Embrace high saturation and neon glow.
- •Use deep purple-black surfaces to make colours pop.
Don't
- •Don't mute the palette — boldness is the point.
- •Don't use it where a serious tone is required.
- •Lean into bold, slightly exaggerated motion.
Hover to feel this theme's base transition.
Lucide · 2px stroke · 1rem. Outline icons with a consistent stroke width; size icons to match adjacent text and align them optically.
- Never use color as the only signal — pair it with text, an icon, or a shape.
- Every interactive element must be keyboard reachable and show a visible focus ring.
- Honor prefers-reduced-motion: reduce by disabling non-essential animation.
- Keep a logical heading order and give every form control a label.
Button
| Background | var(--primary) |
| Text | var(--primary-foreground) |
| Radius | 0.5rem |
| Padding | 0 1.15rem |
| Height | 2.7rem |
| Weight | 700 |
Badge
| Background | var(--accent) / var(--primary) |
| Text | var(--accent-foreground) / var(--primary-foreground) |
| Radius | 0.375rem |
| Padding | 0.15rem 0.55rem |
| Font size | 0.72rem |
| Weight | 700 |
Use for status, counts, and short labels. Keep to one or two words.
Alert
| Radius | 0.75rem |
| Padding | 1rem 1.25rem |
| Border | 1px solid var(--border) |
Always pair the color with an icon and a text label — never rely on color alone.
Form field
| Background | var(--background) |
| Border | 1px solid var(--input) |
| Radius | 0.5rem |
| Height | 2.7rem |
| Padding | 0.5rem 0.75rem |
Label sits above the field; helper or error text sits below.
Card
| Background | var(--card) |
| Text | var(--card-foreground) |
| Border | 1px solid var(--border) |
| Radius | 0.75rem |
| Padding | 1.5rem |
| Shadow | 0 0 28px -4px rgba(240,171,252,0.35) |
The design brief
Vaporwave is a retro-80s design system: magenta-and-purple energy, sunset accents, and bold type. It is nostalgic, playful, and unapologetically loud.
Principles
- Magenta and purple drive a nostalgic, neon-80s mood.
- Bold type and high saturation lean into the aesthetic.
- Deep purple-black surfaces make the neons pop.
When to use
Use Vaporwave for music, gaming, creative tools, and event brands that want retro energy. Avoid it for serious enterprise or finance UIs.
Signature details
- Magenta
#a21cafprimary; neon accents over purple-black. - Space Grotesk + Space Mono, 0.5rem radius.
Use this with your AI
Download or copy the design.md and paste it into Claude, Cursor, or v0 — it tells the agent exactly which colors, fonts, radii, and shadows to use, so your site comes out looking like this.
Export tokens
Drop straight into your codebase.
:root {
--radius: 0.5rem;
--background: #fffafe;
--foreground: #2a0a2e;
--card: #ffffff;
--card-foreground: #2a0a2e;
--popover: #ffffff;
--popover-foreground: #2a0a2e;
--primary: #a21caf;
--primary-foreground: #ffffff;
--secondary: #fdf0fb;
--secondary-foreground: #2a0a2e;
--muted: #f8edf6;
--muted-foreground: #7a4d78;
--accent: #fae8ff;
--accent-foreground: #86198f;
--destructive: #dc2626;
--destructive-foreground: #ffffff;
--border: #f0dcee;
--input: #f0dcee;
--ring: #a21caf;
--shadow-sm: 0 1px 2px rgba(74,4,78,0.20);
--shadow-md: 0 0 28px -4px rgba(240,171,252,0.35);
--shadow-lg: 0 0 56px -8px rgba(240,171,252,0.45);
--font-sans: 'Space Grotesk', ui-sans-serif, system-ui, sans-serif;
--font-mono: 'Space Mono', ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, monospace;
--ease-standard: cubic-bezier(0.4,0,0.2,1);
--ease-emphasized: cubic-bezier(0.34,1.56,0.64,1);
--duration-base: 260ms;
}
.dark {
--background: #190a2e;
--foreground: #f3e3fb;
--card: #22113b;
--card-foreground: #f3e3fb;
--popover: #22113b;
--popover-foreground: #f3e3fb;
--primary: #f0abfc;
--primary-foreground: #4a044e;
--secondary: #2c1648;
--secondary-foreground: #f3e3fb;
--muted: #2c1648;
--muted-foreground: #c2a0d4;
--accent: #6b1a73;
--accent-foreground: #fae8ff;
--destructive: #fb7185;
--destructive-foreground: #450a0a;
--border: #3a1f58;
--input: #3a1f58;
--ring: #f0abfc;
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