Graphic Design Trend: 60s-80s Vintage Vibes

The 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s vintage trend brings back nostalgic vibes for those who lived through those times and even for those who haven’t. In the 60’s, “bold, bright, and beautiful” colors were well represented (Fleck, 2020). In the 70’s, “freeform typography”- flowy and curvy rounded edges and retro swatches, were key elements to the aesthetic (Rimmer, 2020). 80’s Deco consisted of neon colors and drop shadows as well as pronounced curves and angles (Fleck, 2020). This funky trend has made a comeback in early 2019 and has just grown stronger since then. Not only did the 60’s-80’s vintage vibes take over the fashion industry, it has seeped its way into the graphic design industry and many others.

I decided to take my own 60’s-80’s vintage vibes graphic design in a spacey-movie poster direction. I started with a tan background and added a black oval to the middle of the poster using the Ellipse tool in Adobe Photoshop. I opened an image of myself in a different tab and selected myself out of the background. I did this by using the Quick Select tool > Select Subject, then copied and pasted it in the first tab with the black oval. I opened another tab in Photoshop to use as my art board to create various shapes during the creation of the vintage poster. In the art board, I created the three-colored stripe by first using the pen tool. I drew three separate vertical lines, fitting next to each other. In the middle of the three vertical lines, I added one loop directing the stripes up, and another loop directing the stripes down, making the shape look similar to a sideways ‘S’. I selected this striped shape and brought it to the first art board. I then used the 3D mode to manipulate the striped shape to make it look like a pathway, leading your eye in and out of the poster. I then placed the manipulated striped shape on top of the cut out image of me and erased part of the image to show the stripes going around. I created three more shapes with the Ellipse tool, this time circles, and added a gradient to them with the three colors of the striped shape. My next step was to create another oval shape and lay it on top of one of the previously made circles to create my own planet, Saturn. The other two circles are my other planets. For my movie poster typography, I chose to use the Adobe font “HWT Arabesque”. I use this font quite a lot but it was perfect for the poster, it has the “70’s Freeform Typography” to it (Rimmer, 2020). The rest of it is just small details to wrap up this movie poster with vintage 60-80’s vibes.

Sources

Rimmer, K. (2020, November 20). Retro Design Trends: Rewind to the 60s, 70s and 80s. Envato. Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://www.envato.com/blog/retro-graphic-design-trends/

Renee Fleck in Inspiration Feb 21, 2020. (n.d.). Bold & Groovy: Exploring 70s inspired typography & lettering. Dribbble. Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://dribbble.com/stories/2020/02/21/groovy-70s-typography