Synthwave Highway to the Sun — Retro Art Print

About this artwork

A straight road made of glowing cyan grid lines runs from the bottom of the frame to a vanishing point on the horizon. Driving away from us, a dark sports coupé shows four round red tail lights, their glow reflected in the gridded surface beneath. Ahead, a huge orange and gold sun is sliced by horizontal stripes across its lower half, set in a sky that shifts from hot pink to deep violet.

Rows of palm trees line both sides of the road in black silhouette, shrinking into the distance, and jagged purple mountains are traced with pink neon ridgelines. Overhead, the sky is full of small stars, a few flaring as four-pointed sparkles, with faint pink beams fanning outward. This synthwave poster uses strict symmetry and one-point perspective, so the eye travels straight down the road into the sunset. It feels like an endless night drive with the music turned up.

About Synthwave

Synthwave, also called retrowave, is an electronic music style that emerged in the mid-to-late 2000s, drawing on 1980s film soundtracks, synth-pop and arcade game music. Its visual language is just as recognisable: wireframe grids that recall early computer graphics, striped sunsets, palm trees, chrome lettering and sports cars on empty roads. The look is less a record of the real 1980s than an affectionate, imagined version of the future that decade dreamed of.

How to style it

Hang it in a games room, a music corner or above a desk in a dark-walled home office; it suits retro and modern industrial interiors. With the neon megacity beside it, you get a night-time neon wall. Explore the full Neon Gamer Wall Art collection.