A luminous gradient treatment built from blurred, flowing color, soft transitions and diffused light. It can suggest the northern lights without depicting a night sky.
Soft pink, white and cobalt color fields blend across an abstract gradient.
Blue, violet and green curtains of light curl across a dark night sky.
Orange and red light bands rise into a blue-and-violet abstract field.
ABOUT THIS STYLE
Type
Interface pattern
Categories
Digital
Disciplines
Graphic Design
Period
Named as a UI trend by early 2021; the look itself is older.
Label status
contemporary label
Origins and attribution
Designer Michał Malewicz presented Aurora UI as a new visual trend for 2021: blurred, organic gradient backgrounds. Albert Walicki (March 2021) credits the name to Malewicz and lists its features as blurred shapes, similar colours and smooth transitions between colours. He also notes the look was not new: Stripe had used it in its website header for a long time.
Research source
hype4.academy · albertwalicki.com · uxplanet.org · kittl.com
Images generated by
GPT-6 Extra High
RELATED STYLES
INGREDIENTS
Flowing color bands; diffused edges; cool-to-warm transitions; dark fields or pale haze.
POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS
Music releases, immersive events and atmospheric digital imagery.
WAYS TO EXPLORE
Compare one broad light ribbon with several narrow bands. Keep text away from the brightest transition.
SOURCES
hype4.academy — aurora ui new visual trend for 2021
albertwalicki.com — aurora ui how to create
Visual examples are original AI-generated studies.