Vectordelia
ベクターデリア / mid-2000s–early 2010s / retrospective name / Style / Digital Retro
A mid-2000s to early-2010s visual language that made flat vector graphics proliferate across advertising, music graphics and game interfaces. Vivid curves, flowers, birds, human silhouettes, speakers, splashes and gradient blocks spread outward from a center. It was named Vectordelia or Frutiger Metro retrospectively; it predates and is distinct from Microsoft's typographic Metro interface.
At a glance
Visual cues
- Thick curves, vines, flowers, splashes and concentric rings growing outward from a center
- Dancing people, birds, butterflies, skylines and speakers layered as silhouettes
- Lime, cyan, magenta and orange planes and gradients colliding with black or white
- Thin humanist sans-serif type contrasting with expansive vector ornament
Best used for
- Concentrating motion and abundance into flat graphics for music, festivals or youth-facing services without photography
- Recreating 2000s digital culture in exhibitions or games as vector proliferation rather than glossy 3D
Use this style
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Detailed guidance and sourcesProduction rules, reference works, comparisons, research and citation formats
Dictionary entry
- Type
- Set short copy in a light humanist sans-serif inside gaps in the curves; do not outline the letters like the ornament.
- Composition
- Grow broad curves in three directions from the subject, layer silhouettes and floral forms at varied scales, and reserve one solid area for reading.
- Material
- Use crisp vector planes, transparent gradients, halftones and splatter brushes, limiting photographic texture to one point.
- Caution
- Do not merely flatten Frutiger Aero's sky and gloss, and do not confuse it with Microsoft's Metro UI. Curves, silhouettes and music or nature motifs must form one continuous visual flow.
- Further study
- The spread of vector packs and Illustrator in the 2000s / Advertising, music and game screens before the label Frutiger Metro / Boundaries with Frutiger Aero, Vectorheart and Flat Design
Related entries
- Frutiger Aero (フルティガー・エアロ)Same Digital Retro lineage.Compare Vectordelia and Frutiger Aero
- Vectorheart (ベクターハート)Same Digital Retro lineage.Compare Vectordelia and Vectorheart
More from Digital Retro
Continue through styles in the same Digital Retro family, prioritised by shared effects.
- Future Funk (フューチャーファンク)Shared effects: Exhilaration / Play / Nostalgia.
- Synthwave (シンセウェーブ)Shared effects: Exhilaration / Nostalgia.
- Web 1.0 (ウェブ1.0)Shared effects: Nostalgia / Play.
Browse all Digital Retro entries
Cite this entry
The dictionary is meant to be linked to. Take whichever form fits where you are writing.
- Link
- https://indexstyle.org/styles/vectordelia
- Markdown
- [Vectordelia — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/vectordelia)
- HTML
- <a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/vectordelia">Vectordelia — IndexStyle</a>