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What is the name of the flat design illustration style where edges have a gooey, wavy 'lava-lamp' style effect?

I'd like to find a tutorial to create this effect in Adobe Illustrator but without knowing what it's called I'm not having much luck.

Some examples:

Flat illustration space nebula

flat illustration space planets comet

moonlit lake islands at night

landscape park lake mountains

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  • Go to youtube and search for "flat design meteor effect". There are lots of tutorials
    – Billy Kerr
    Feb 4 at 11:51

3 Answers 3

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I don't know specifically if there's a name for it. But it is exceptionally common and quite easy to replicate.

The gist...

Alternating colored round cap strokes of random/varying lengths, red used here so it is visible.
[See here for how to randomize the path lengths.]

enter image description here

Add fill shape, behind the strokes, which matches one of the colors....

enter image description here

Select all. Object > Expand
Pathfinder > Merge.
Delete the red objects.

enter image description here

These are the basic, quick steps. As with most things, refinement will always make the final appearance better.

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Not sure about the word for this specific effect. The normal word for this design style is Corporate Memphis: a mixture of bright colors and flat design. Not an illustrator but I'd expect it to be relatively easy to replicate when you get used to the tools because of the use of fairly flat colors and gradients.

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The Kurzgesagt founder calls it 'flat design' - there are tutorials, and an explanation from Kurzgesagt themselves.

See:

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  • First thing I thought of when looking at these. Not sure they invented the look, but they are one of the better examples of it. Feb 3 at 18:27
  • Hi. Welcome to GDSE. I think the OP is aware it is called "flat design", since they already mentioned that in their question. They want to know what this specific effect is called.
    – Billy Kerr
    Feb 4 at 11:28

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