Retro Design Trends: Rewind to the 60s, 70s, and 80s

Nowadays you can find vintage or retro-related posts everywhere. People are now again going back to that era and bringing in the cool elements of that era to this. Everything is turning into pop culture and fusion which does not even work and sounds amazing but looks aesthetically pleasing too!

The sense of familiarity and nostalgia while adding up these elements to your project makes them more intriguing and relatable for a certain age group.

Recycling  retro design trends and ideas can turn into something very high-fashion and chic.

Retro Design Trends: The 60s

The 60s was the era of bright colors, LSD-inspired psychedelia, and flowing patterns. It was a huge turning point for graphic design. This era was more into creative, bright, and experimental styles.

Here are some of the 1960s Retro Design Trends that are making a comeback.

Pop Art

The first pop art emerged in the late 1950s and made its prominent presence in the 60s. emerging up from everywhere like comic books to fine art, this trend was very famous. The culture had some modern elements, bright colors, and a pop of quirkiness to it.

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Optical Art & Kaleidoscopic Patterns

In 1964 by Time magazine, optical art was first talked about. It was an abstract design of art that created illusions using positive as well as negative space. This retro design trend was one of the rapidly growing trends of that era.

Going hand in hand with Optical Art is the Kaleidoscopic Patterns trend.  This functioned by twisting a mirrored tube or cone having colored glasses beads and glitters embedded in it. It formed a different colorful geometric pattern due to the refraction of light. Throughout the 60s and to date this thing is still popular and mesmerizing to watch at.

Bright Colours

Ditching the softcore and muted pastels, the 60s was the time to go all crazy, bold, and fun with bright colors. The use of color was a sign of rebellion and freedom for some of the powerful movements.  Now when we talk about 2021 the bright colors are again back in fashion. Striking neon and bold flashy tones can be seen almost everywhere. The vividness of hues in this era is very out there and makes a statement.

Psychedelic Design

Inspired by the psychedelic movement, the 60s brought up a whole new style of designing and patterning things. These psychedelics were largely influenced by hallucinogenic drugs that become very popular and trendy for recreational usage. You could see these retro design trends and designs not only in movies but also in music, art, and fashion. The dreamy vibrant designs and typography were super popular and trendy at that time. To date, psychedelic designs are still a big and popular trend that looks like it is here to stay.

Retro Design Trends: The 70s

While there were psychedelics in the 60s but the grooviest, disc and funk culture emerged in the 70s.

Bold colored fonts with thick outlines, flowing and floral patterns made their space in the 70s and are still on fire and work as inspiration in today’s graphic designing.

If you want to replicate this groovy vibe, here are some iconic 70s retro design trends trending again in 2021-

Simple Shapes & Bold Colors

In contrast to the psychedelic style, the 1970s portrayed much simpler organized, and cohesive-looking designs whether it was for décor or for fashion.

Freeform Typography

The free-flowing style of typography took a prominent place in the 1970s as a retro design trend. The technique of writing fonts in a very flowy and free manner and not to write anything in a congested form. From bubble and cloud-like shapes to texts in neon sign-inspired linework. Even today people are breaking the conventional and generic typography, rather than choosing this for their branding and promotional images.

Hippie Patterns & Motifs

The 70s had a lot of movements social and cultural, which influenced and raised the cultural trends. People wanted to make bold statements and portray themselves as strong familiarities. People were going all hippie and out there in fields of fashion, music and what not!

Retro Design Trends: The 80s

This was the era of extravagance where there were hairstyles, larger than life; outbursts of bold, bright, and vibrant tones of hue. And let’s not forget about crazy patterns and lycra leggings. This was out there and it’s still out there. The style was more rebellious and statement-making rather than being boring and simple. A lot of elements happened around this style.

To get the 80s vibe, here are some of the top retro design trends making a comeback…

Pop Cultures

The influence and part of TV, music, films, and games played a huge role in this and they objectified how the era worked. We can see the connection and comeback of these styles and patterns in today’s music and fashion largely. Pop culture is something that never goes out of style and trend.

Neon

A chemical element representing an entire decade would be something that no one would’ve ever thought of! One of the most well-known and classic styles or retro design trends of the 80s was Neon. From album covers to video games to film posters, you could easily spot neon everywhere. And now in 2020, neon is again back on time. The vibe and aesthetics people go for today have so much fluorescent and neon in it. This makes the designs unique and flashy.

Tropical & 80s Deco

Corals, beaches, the smell of sands, sunsets, and palm trees were on highlight during the 80s. Whether it was on film posters or imprinted on t-shirts, the beachy vibe was prevailing everywhere. From home décor to fashion apparel you could spot the trend everywhere. The concept of contrast as a retro design trend was at its peak. Color blocking was done efficiently from using pastels to corals, the 80sneon tropical motifs were very stylish and edgy.

Memphis Style

This style form was created by the Memphis group in Milan, Memphis style is said to be the essentials of 80s styles. It’s the combination of art deco, pop, and tropical styles together and fused together into one style form. With a hint of modernism by adding geometric asymmetrical designs to this makes the whole concept very edgy and high-fashion. This retro design trend has taken over recent times in a full-fledged manner as it contains all the necessary elements to recreate any of the eras.

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