The flat cartoon style: simple characters, flat light, bold palette and clean shapes
Every flat cartoon piece here is built from the same four parts. The style draws the characters, the light, the palette and the shapes around your words; the letters come from the AI font you pick.
Flat cartoon avatars, matching PFPs, stickers, illustrations and posts
Every format here draws simple friendly characters in flat colour around your name or words. Pick a format to see designs made in it, or describe your own.
Matching Cartoon PFPs
One wide picture with two or three characters, each centred in its own half on its own colour, ready to crop into matching squares.
Flat Cartoon Avatars
Square or round profile pictures of one friendly character, face large in the middle, on a plain colour circle or blob.
Flat Cartoon Stickers
Die-cut stickers with white borders: a pet, a mug, a sun or a character with a short word, for laptops and planners.
AI fonts that fit Flat Cartoon
Every AI font here fits the Flat Cartoon frame. Pick one, or let the generator choose.
Flat Cartoon style designs
Real designs made on FontVibe. Open any one, or reuse it with your own text.
What you can make with Flat Cartoon
Pages for the things people make in the Flat Cartoon style. Each one has ready-made ideas and the right size.
Similar styles
Other looks that work for the same kinds of designs.
Tags in Flat Cartoon
Every tag used on this page — each opens the designs, fonts and styles that share it.
Questions
The story behind Flat Cartoon
Where the look comes from, the moments that shaped it and the facts behind it, with sources.
Where the flat cartoon look comes from
Flat cartoon pictures borrow from three places. The Memphis Group, founded by Ettore Sottsass in December 1980 and active until 1987, is remembered for bright colours, childish patterns and geometric shapes. Vector drawing gave such shapes clean edges: Ivan Sutherland ran his program Sketchpad in 1963, and Adobe Illustrator, released in early 1987, used lines and Bézier curves to render infinitely scalable graphics.
Screens then went flat. Microsoft continued the flat style with Windows Phone 7 in 2010, and in 2013 Apple’s iOS 7 shifted to a flat interface with brighter colours. In 2017 the agency Buck created a flat figure style called Alegria for Facebook; it was later nicknamed Corporate Memphis.
Avatars made it personal. The word avatar was coined in 1985 by Richard Garriott for the game Ultima IV, and in October 2014 Bitstrips launched the Bitmoji app as a spin-off. Today’s flat cartoon PFPs join the two: a simple friendly character on a plain colour field, drawn alone or as a matching pair.
Sources: Wikipedia — Memphis Group · Wikipedia — Vector graphics · Wikipedia — Adobe Illustrator · Wikipedia — Flat design · Wikipedia — Corporate Memphis · Wikipedia — Avatar (computing) · Wikipedia — Bitmoji
Moments that shaped the flat cartoon look
Did you know?
The word avatar for an on-screen self was coined in 1985 by Richard Garriott for the game Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar. Source ↗
The Memphis Group is named after Bob Dylan’s song Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again, which played repeatedly during its first meeting. Source ↗
Bitmoji was the most downloaded iOS app worldwide in 2017, and by 2022 it had over 250 million users. Source ↗
The name Corporate Memphis was coined by Mike Merrill, after the title of an Are.na board that collected early examples. Source ↗
Flat cartoon in typography
Words in flat cartoon pieces stay small and calm next to the character: a first name or handle under an avatar, set in a soft rounded sans or friendly handwriting in one of the picture’s colours. On matching PFPs each name sits under its own character, or one short phrase is split across the two halves so the pair reads as one.
On illustrations and posts the title is short and left or centre aligned on a plain colour block, with plenty of space, and details such as a date or time sit underneath in the same face at a smaller size.
Where you’ll see it
- ✦Profile pictures on Instagram, TikTok, Discord and X
- ✦Matching couple and best-friend PFPs
- ✦Sticker sheets for laptops, planners and water bottles
- ✦Blog headers and editorial spot illustrations
- ✦Website, app and onboarding illustrations
- ✦Event announcements and social posts
The flat cartoon style: simple characters, flat light, bold palette and clean shapes
Every flat cartoon piece here is built from the same four parts. The style draws the characters, the light, the palette and the shapes around your words; the letters come from the AI font you pick.
Flat cartoon avatars, matching PFPs, stickers, illustrations and posts
Every format here draws simple friendly characters in flat colour around your name or words. Pick a format to see designs made in it, or describe your own.
Matching Cartoon PFPs
One wide picture with two or three characters, each centred in its own half on its own colour, ready to crop into matching squares.
Flat Cartoon Avatars
Square or round profile pictures of one friendly character, face large in the middle, on a plain colour circle or blob.
Flat Cartoon Stickers
Die-cut stickers with white borders: a pet, a mug, a sun or a character with a short word, for laptops and planners.
AI fonts that fit Flat Cartoon
Every AI font here fits the Flat Cartoon frame. Pick one, or let the generator choose.
Flat Cartoon style designs
Real designs made on FontVibe. Open any one, or reuse it with your own text.
What you can make with Flat Cartoon
Pages for the things people make in the Flat Cartoon style. Each one has ready-made ideas and the right size.
Similar styles
Other looks that work for the same kinds of designs.
Tags in Flat Cartoon
Every tag used on this page — each opens the designs, fonts and styles that share it.
Questions
The story behind Flat Cartoon
Where the look comes from, the moments that shaped it and the facts behind it, with sources.
Where the flat cartoon look comes from
Flat cartoon pictures borrow from three places. The Memphis Group, founded by Ettore Sottsass in December 1980 and active until 1987, is remembered for bright colours, childish patterns and geometric shapes. Vector drawing gave such shapes clean edges: Ivan Sutherland ran his program Sketchpad in 1963, and Adobe Illustrator, released in early 1987, used lines and Bézier curves to render infinitely scalable graphics.
Screens then went flat. Microsoft continued the flat style with Windows Phone 7 in 2010, and in 2013 Apple’s iOS 7 shifted to a flat interface with brighter colours. In 2017 the agency Buck created a flat figure style called Alegria for Facebook; it was later nicknamed Corporate Memphis.
Avatars made it personal. The word avatar was coined in 1985 by Richard Garriott for the game Ultima IV, and in October 2014 Bitstrips launched the Bitmoji app as a spin-off. Today’s flat cartoon PFPs join the two: a simple friendly character on a plain colour field, drawn alone or as a matching pair.
Sources: Wikipedia — Memphis Group · Wikipedia — Vector graphics · Wikipedia — Adobe Illustrator · Wikipedia — Flat design · Wikipedia — Corporate Memphis · Wikipedia — Avatar (computing) · Wikipedia — Bitmoji
Moments that shaped the flat cartoon look
Did you know?
The word avatar for an on-screen self was coined in 1985 by Richard Garriott for the game Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar. Source ↗
The Memphis Group is named after Bob Dylan’s song Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again, which played repeatedly during its first meeting. Source ↗
Bitmoji was the most downloaded iOS app worldwide in 2017, and by 2022 it had over 250 million users. Source ↗
The name Corporate Memphis was coined by Mike Merrill, after the title of an Are.na board that collected early examples. Source ↗
Flat cartoon in typography
Words in flat cartoon pieces stay small and calm next to the character: a first name or handle under an avatar, set in a soft rounded sans or friendly handwriting in one of the picture’s colours. On matching PFPs each name sits under its own character, or one short phrase is split across the two halves so the pair reads as one.
On illustrations and posts the title is short and left or centre aligned on a plain colour block, with plenty of space, and details such as a date or time sit underneath in the same face at a smaller size.
Where you’ll see it
- ✦Profile pictures on Instagram, TikTok, Discord and X
- ✦Matching couple and best-friend PFPs
- ✦Sticker sheets for laptops, planners and water bottles
- ✦Blog headers and editorial spot illustrations
- ✦Website, app and onboarding illustrations
- ✦Event announcements and social posts