If you drink lots of soda, have you ever noticed that the label text of Coca Cola never changed? Some design layouts and bottle design might have changed but the "Coca Cola" text you see has never changed. The label text itself is like a company icon and they have preserved it that way for many decades unlike Pepsi. That is an example of retro art. Retro, from the word "retrospective", meaning backwards. To put it short, its art inspired by those you see by going backwards in time, not really going back to Da Vinci's or Van Goh's times but by going back to the mid 20th century. It gives you that classic feel like if it was done decades ago. Some retro arts have become iconic that's why companies like Coca Cola decided to keep it that way. Retro is colorful from how I see it and even today, Retro art printed on fashion merchandise are widely popular.
Retro Art and Advertising
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American Wartime Posters
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American advertisements in the 40's and 50's are basically retro art in today's terms. The people you see in those pictures basically wore the fashion back in those times when television was young and usually black and white. Even wartime posters and propaganda contain retro art but the advertising and propaganda efforts back then gave more emphasis to 20th century arts like "Pop Art" and also made this a classic even today.
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| Coca Cola Advertisements |
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I chose Coca Cola as an example because of its long history in advertising. It had several examples of Retro art like Santa drinking Coke and cute smiling girls from the mid-1900s. Notice they used the same text label design back then.
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| Campbell Soup Can |
Another example is the Campbell Soup can designed by the American artist, Andy Warhol who made a reputation in the Pop Art Movement. Artists in those times used designing talent rather than Photoshop which they didn't have.
Psychedelia and the Famous People Featured on Retro Art
Fashion today has a huge variety in terms of design, style, color, subject and message. Some of us who were born on this later generation can't help wonder why we see pictures of unknown people on shirts, caps, bags, etc. One thing we do assume is that these guys must be famous or have done something iconic in the past. Fashion preference to me is an expression and whenever you wear something with some famous person's face in it, it appears as if it brings a lot more meaning to what you want to express even if you don't intend it to. Some might even consider that a plus into your awesomeness factor. Colorful or psychedelic shirts are still on the hip today.
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| Jimi Hendrix |
Back in the 60's, when rock music psychedelia, along with those peace-loving, flower power hippies were at their peak, psychedelic art was born. Its characterized by colorful arts, mimicking the effects of LSD and other drugs at that time. Famous rock musicians like the great guitarist, Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles were featured on psychedelic art.
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| The Beatles |
The Beatles was a symbol of the cultural revolution in the 60's.
Pictures were taken of the four Beatles that were made into colorful psychedelic art. Variations on this design also appear somewhere. The famous cover of their album called "Abbey Road", shows them crossing a zebra road was also imitated a lot even on The Simpsons cartoon.
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| The Beatles on Abbey Road |
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| Bob Marley |
Another one on my list would be the iconic symbol of Rastafari and Jamaican Reggae music, Bob Marley. Not only does he inspire people to wear dreadlocks, he is featured on a lot of clothes and accessories, decades after his time. I've seen the "three colors" theme; red, yellow and green on bracelets, bonnets, shirts and other accessories today.
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| Che Guevara |
And lastly, "Guerrillero Heroico", the famous photograph of Ernesto "Che" Guevara who is a famous symbol of rebellion was simply a masterpiece. The cropped portion of this photograph can be seen on an infinite number of shirts, caps, bags and so many other merchandise. I knew a guy back in high school asking who Che Guevara was. I told him he was famous for a rebellion. He thought that Che was a "rock icon". So now you see how much people would look up to iconic people they see printed on shirts that they don't even know of. But its not only the musicians who got into this status of a cultural symbol. Retro or lets say "pop art" helped make these people known in today's generation.
Disco Influence and the Modern Adaptations of Retro Art
One of the characteristics of Retro art I've seen is that some feature colorful grooves like a Disco theme from the 70's often with stereo speakers and discs. The design is somehow linked to music.
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| Modern Adaptation of Retro Art |
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| Jimi Hendrix printed on a shirt |
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| Pictures of Famous people at a diner |
Here is a shirt I saw displayed on a boutique shop. Its an image of Jimi Hendrix, a legendary lead guitar player from the 60's.
Now here's a collection of some famous celebrities from the past displayed on the wall of a diner. Shown here are James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and The Beatles. The diner decided to incorporate a retro theme to their design layout and they did great with that.
And to keep up, I also did some Retro arts featuring some of my friends and they liked it. I used a free program called Photoscape and MS Paint for this and it turned out well. I designed them to be colorful.
Expression helps define who we are be it views, words, music, art, thought or belief. Some people who have become famous, even decades after their time are still used and depicted as cultural symbols. They are also subject to art and fashion. Styles and people of yesteryear have stood the test of time and they still inspire modern artwork and creativity. So if you want to aim for something, aim high and you might just become an icon.
