Pop futurism: The Korean-inspired futuristic design trend to use now

The future looks bright, the future looks pop! About as far from a dystopian drearfest as could be imagined, this futuristic design trend is set to teleport your designs into a pastel-coated universe. Inspired by K-Pop aesthetics and Y3K trends, Pop Futurism is where pop and graphic design collide to hyper effect.

This 2025 design trend is brilliant for giving social media, website and print projects a much-needed dose of escapism and whimsy. Presenting a view of the future that nearly everyone can get on board with, discover why Pop Futurism is trending online right now, and learn how to nail the look in your own projects.

Want to get visual assets to nail the look? Discover Korean-inspired graphics, holographic backgrounds and metallic 3D fonts on Envato.

Riding off the back of Y3K aesthetics and the world’s new-found obsession with unashamedly optimistic pop (you know you love it), Pop Futurism is a futuristic graphic design trend that imagines futuristic scenarios or themes through a sugar-coated lens. It’s cutesy and fun, but still packs some serious style, with 3D cartoon typography, metallic liquid effects and highly-detailed AI-style imagery. 

It isn’t Quiet Luxury, but this futuristic trend isn’t aiming for subtle. If you want a look-at-me effect for popping social posts, or otherworldly ideas for branding projects, this is the graphic design style to try. It’s also gaining serious traction online, tapping into Gen-Z audiences who already love a 2000s aesthetic, but combining this with the irresistible pull of this demographic’s favourite pop music. 

“Where has Y2K gone all of a sudden?” I hear you cry. Fret not, a Y2K aesthetic is still highly sought-after by consumers, but Y3K (which transports these aesthetics into the future) and AI design has opened up a whole new universe in which a 2000s internet aesthetic is playing out in wildly different ways. It’s exciting stuff.

Graphic designers, listen up. You need to start casting your eye over Korean pop culture and Japanese design. K-Pop has made us all into Blackpink megafans, but there’s more to it than band exports. It’s a much broader cultural trend that Western consumers have been enamoured with over the past decade, from Korean skincare to Japandi interior design. When we look Eastwards, we discover a completely new way of seeing design, lifestyle and culture, and both South Korea and Japan are at the heart of these movements. 

Pop Futurism fuses futuristic concepts, such as cute cyber-girls, advanced AI technology and space-age cityscapes, with elements of Japanese and Korean design. Manga characters might be reimagined in glossy 3D, while dressed in the latest avant-garde K-fashion, inspired by Hallyu (the “Korean Wave”). Futuristic urban scenes that might look straight out of Seoul are the perfect canvas for branded marketing campaigns, complete with AI-generated visuals that bring your fantasy ideas to hyperreal life.

This futuristic trend is a great big blend of lots of fun things, bringing together a 2000s futuristic aesthetic with pop music and urban design. How does the design trend manifest? We’re talking bubblegum color, 3D metallic text, and depictions of technology, all ideally set against a holographic background or neon-lit cityscape.

Liquify your metallic backgrounds, blow your typography up like a balloon, and look to lavender, baby pink, pistachio green and space white to set the right pastel color tone.

While robots are great and all that, you’ll need to make your cyborgs feel more whimsical and ‘human’ to keep the trend from straying into cold, dystopian territory. Keep it fun, frivolous and larger-than-life, with plenty of tactile 3D texture. 

For graphics, look to Japanese pop culture design, such as Manga and Anime, to inspire your illustration style, or generate AI images to create otherworldly futuristic characters to populate your projects.

Use this prompt to create the image above on ImageGen:

A fusion of pop culture and AI-inspired design, Pop Futurism is an aesthetic that positions brands as innovative, forward-facing, and fun as well. The trend holds particular appeal for younger Gen-Z audiences or tech-savvy music fans, who might have seen this aesthetic used by artists like Grimes, FKA Twigs and Billie Eilish.

In 2025, the trend started to cross over from music into branding and advertising, with a number of fashion brands in particular aligning themselves with this alt-aesthetic to appeal to new or younger audiences. Let’s look at a few examples.

The Kim Kardashian-founded shapewear brand tapped Blackpink star Rosé for its saccharine Valentine’s Day campaign, officially welcoming K-Pop into the SKIMS universe, but the brand have also frequently experimented with tongue-in-cheek sci-fi branding, giving their campaigns a unique niche in the underwear market.

A case in point—the completely surreal, love-it-or-hate-it “SKIMS Lab” ad campaign, which depicted Kardashian overseeing a lab of ‘Kim clones’ testing out SKIMS products. Haunting…or diverting? You decide. The brand also use Pop Futurism-style typography, with balloon fonts and pastel metallic type to keep a playful feel.

Sportswear brand On cultivates creative content around the idea of being innovative, with sports technology that poses a serious threat to heavyweights Nike and Adidas. 

One of the most successful ad campaigns of this year saw Zendaya in a fictional movie trailer for a sci-fi film called Zone Dreamers. Paying tribute to retrofuturism while staying crisp, contemporary and relevant for modern audiences, the campaign features plenty of Pop Futurism inspiration, from bubblegum color palettes to liquid chrome textures.

The brand has also recently collaborated with music artist FKA Twigs on a surreal sci-fi campaign that’s straight out of the Pop Futurism playbook, complete with pastel clouds, floating models and ahem, interesting contact lenses.

However you feel about the company’s controversial CEO, car manufacturer Tesla certainly grabs headlines and ad space. The brand often uses futuristic elements in its social media, identity and advertising to position itself as the most cutting-edge player in the commercial car industry.

Tesla also often employs Japanese- and Korean-inspired design elements in graphics, typography and illustration to make a connection with the reputations of these cultures as leaders in technological innovation. 

Its most interesting recent creative strategy? Opening a ‘Tesla Diner’ in Hollywood, complete with retrofuturistic styling, neon lighting and…robot servers. Giving Black Mirror? A little, but the brand knows that futuristic marketing will always draw curious eyes their way.

Jellycore anyone? The Italian fashion house has put out some incredibly creative branding over the past few years, and isn’t one to shy away from a surreal or eccentric aesthetic.

From quivering 3D bags rendered in pastel jelly to choosing Korean-American hip-hop artist Jay Park as a brand ambassador, Gucci flirts with (and sets) a number of consumer trends, including Pop Futurism, eclectic heritage and candid photography. It’s all about the mix.

Pop Futurism is a super fun aesthetic to experiment with. Surreal and off-beat, you can go as weird and wonderful as your imagination takes you, but there are a few key visual elements that will help you nail the futuristic design style in your projects in no time. 

Pop futurism is tactile and touchable, and textures are the perfect way to introduce this sensory element into a design. Look for molten liquid metal backgrounds for tech-forward edge, pastel holographic backgrounds for instant Y3K vibes or 3D backgrounds that feel squishable and bouncy.

Pop Futurism is the perfect context for experimenting with AI generated imagery, allowing you to realise fantastical ideas in a futuristic setting. Create fantasy pop characters or pastel-soaked cities from the future. Just remember to keep your prompts specific to avoid going dystopian, including pastel color schemes and ethereal, soft lighting as part of your AI art prompt.

You can use this prompt to create the image above on ImageGen:

Balance out more somber elements in your Pop Futurist designs with unashamedly playful, childlike typography. Balloon fonts not only look really fun, they’re super on-brand and look fantastic rendered in pastel colors or glossy metallic textures.

You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers! Pop Futurism is related to other tech trends and Y3K-inspired aesthetics, so it’s good to get a broader idea of how it fits in alongside other trending aesthetics.

Shorthand for ‘the year 2000’, Y2K is a nostalgic aesthetic that celebrates the style, fashion and design of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Think Paris Hilton, Juicy Couture, Britney and lashes of pink and rhinestones. It’s still a hugely popular trend on social media and amongst consumers, with Y2K style steadily gaining traction over the last five years.

OK, so we’ve wrapped our heads around Y2K and then another similar-sounding trend comes along. Sigh. So, what does Y3K mean? It means ‘the year 3000’ (get with it, people). This aesthetic, which is more recent than Y2K, transports a 2000s aesthetic into the future. It’s Paris Hilton…but a robot? Well, yep, sort of. It’s sleek, silver and holographic, defined by futuristic space-age fashion. Music artist Grimes is the original Y3K gal. 

Pop Futurism certainly borrows elements from Y3K, but it feels a lot less serious in tone. Color schemes are lighter, with predominantly pastels and whites, there is an element of childlike playfulness, and there are fewer intimidating robots and aliens. It’s really about fusing Y3K style with a cutesy Korean aesthetic, making it feel lighter and more ‘pop’. 

Today, perhaps more than ever, pop music is hugely influential on graphic design. Pop artists are walking brands, with carefully cultivated aesthetic identities, and this only adds to their pulling power. Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa and Doja Cat are all examples of artists who have fully harnessed the power of visual branding in their marketing.

Therefore, it seems unsurprising that graphic design is paying attention. Many big brands are lifting lessons from pop music culture, and also using artist fan bases to target their creative efforts more effectively.

Trends are far from a fickle flash in the pan. They define the way that consumers connect emotionally with a design or a brand. Keeping ahead of the curve helps you create designs that resonate more strongly with your audience, and the AI-inspired Pop Futurism trend is just one example of how wider interests in technology, sci-fi and pop culture help to inform how people interact with creative output. 

Discover more about how AI is impacting on graphic design with our deep-dive into the subject, or delve into even more 2025 graphic design trends in our latest report.

Ready to try creating your own AI image prompts? Envato’s ImageGen and GraphicsGen are intuitive platforms where creators can play and experiment. Create anything you can imagine, from futuristic fantasyscapes to K-Pop-inspired characters.

Ready to start using AI elements in your marketing projects? Craft emotive AI videos for YouTube with VideoGen, beautiful soundtracks for creative content with MusicGen, and use creative AI prompts to get the best from your campaign imagery with ImageGen.