Journal » Time Machine

Time Machine / Children’s Annuals from the 80s

Attitude Design — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:13:45 +0000

Once again we’re stepping back in time – here we have a look at children’s annuals and magazines from the 1980s. Feeling nostalgic yet? Have a look at our selection below and we’ll soon have your memories of tree houses, bike rides and games of hopscotch flooding back. Be inspired by those beautiful, bright colours…

Disclaimer: We are not attempting to take any credit for the above work – we have had nothing to do with any of the designs shown. If you have any questions regarding this please contact us.

Time Machine / Car Ads of the 1920s

Attitude Design — Wed, 05 May 2010 11:01:14 +0000

Cars were still relatively new in the 1920s with large-scale production of the automobile beginning in the early 1900s. With lots of manufacturers competing to gain attention (and of course sales!) car technology grew rapidly. As always with any product – advertising was key and here we take a look at some car adverts from that era. Alot of these adverts are quite ‘wordy’ compared with today and the use of colour was very rare. Be inspired – why not experiment with some black & white designs?!

Images from www.adclassix.com

Disclaimer: We are not attempting to take any credit for the above work – we have had nothing to do with any of the designs shown. If you have any questions regarding this please contact us.

Time Machine / Fashion Adverts from the 80s

Attitude Design — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:49:21 +0000

The 1980s – a time of leg warmers and jumpsuits – here we take a look at fashion advertising from this era. There’s some really creative pieces in here – so travel back down memory lane and be inspired by an 80′s twist …

Disclaimer: We are not attempting to take any credit for the above work – we have had nothing to do with any of the designs shown. If you have any questions regarding this please contact us.

Time Machine / Levi’s Ads in the 00ties

Attitude Design — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:56:26 +0000

Recently, whilst travelling in our time machine we came across some brilliantly creative adverts from Levi’s – here we show a selection from the 2000 years. We hope you will be inspired – go be creative…

For more, please see http://www.coloribus.com/focus/most_creative_ads_for_levis/

Disclaimer: We are not attempting to take any credit for the above work – we have had nothing to do with any of the designs shown. If you have any questions regarding this please contact us.

Time Machine / Website Designs from the 90s

Attitude Design — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:57:46 +0000

The internet is probably the largest and (to alot of people) the most accessible source of information around today. If you want to know what sits next to Oxygen in the Periodic Table, find your nearest beauty salon or simply catch up with the latest news, just tap a few words into your browser window and away you go. It’s hard to imagine a world when business cards didn’t have a ‘www’ address on them, when the phrase ‘Google it’ wasn’t around and when you couldn’t shop ‘online’. And yet it’s really only the last 10-20 years that the general public has been using websites.

Websites were still at an early stage in the 90s. Designs were simplistic and websites were not really interactive. Information tended to be positioned in a small space in the centre – with lots of empty space all around. This was because people’s screens were smaller than today and in addition to that, people were not used to scrolling up and down the page. However, considering that websites were still relatively new in the 90s, any company that had developed a site – even if it was a single page was forward thinking and ahead of the game. Here we take a look at a selection (with thanks to WayBackMachine).

The American Broadcasting Company site (Oct 1996).

The Apple site (Apr 1997).

The Bank of Scotland site (Jan 1998).

The Google site (Dec 1998).

The BBC site (Dec 1996).

The Guardian site (Feb 1997).

The ITV site (Jun 1998).

The Yahoo site (Jan 1997).

Disclaimer: We are not attempting to take any credit for the above work – we have had nothing to do with any of the designs shown. If you have any questions regarding this please contact us.

Time Machine / Cereal Boxes From the 70s

Attitude Design — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:51:10 +0000

Breakfast – it’s supposed to be the most important meal of the day and many of us can remember sitting down to a bowl of cereal before school. Manufacturers work hard at attracting children to their cereals and often make use of a cartoon character or ‘freebie’. Here we take a look at the graphics and marketing used in some 70s cereal packaging – enjoy some retro style….

Disclaimer: We are not attempting to take any credit for the above work – we have had nothing to do with any of the designs shown. If you have any questions regarding this please contact us.

Time Machine / Perfume Ads from the 90s

Attitude Design — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:39:49 +0000

Perfume evokes many feelings within us. Particular perfumes can remind us of a special occasion like a romantic date or a birthday. Perfume advertising seeks to capture these warm and sentimental feelings and associate their product with the ‘perfect moment’ that everyone wants in their life. Here we take a look at perfume adverts from the 90s. Be inspired…

Disclaimer: We are not attempting to take any credit for the above work – we have had nothing to do with any of the designs shown. If you have any questions regarding this please contact us.

Time Machine / Fashion Mags from the 50s & 60s

Attitude Design — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:56:03 +0000

Fashion has always fascinated the public but by the beginning of the 20th century it became much more accessible. Fashion magazines started to include photographs and became more much more influential – showing the power of visual images. With the introduction of cheap colour printing in the 1960s, sales for fashion magazines rose dramatically and the impact of the fashion magazine grew accordingly.

Here are a selection of some great magazine covers from the 50s and 60s to wet your creative palate!

Disclaimer: We are not attempting to take any credit for the above work – we have had nothing to do with any of the designs shown. If you have any questions regarding this please contact us.

Time Machine / Record Cover Designs

Attitude Design — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 02:18:26 +0000

Nowadays, with the invention of mp3′s, we sometimes forget the magic of having a visual to go with our music. The art of record cover designs has nearly vanished – and no other music packaging has really been such a canvas for creative art. From the 50′s right through to the 70′s, record album art was taken very seriously. For many many moons, the artwork which appeared on record sleeves was a form of commercial art and graphic design of the highest form.

Record cover designs defined the artist and had as much power to sell the record as the music itself. The designs were to reflect a mood, and a topic or an artist – they were an expression of the music held within. They define a period of graphic design which is well worth being inspired by. It gives us great pleasure to present some of the best record designs which have inspired us here at Attitude Design. Maybe you have a record cover which you love – why not leave a link to it in the comments at the end?

Time Machine / Medieval Manuscript Design

Attitude Design — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:06:07 +0000

The ancient Medieval scribes really were pioneers in design and typography. Yes, they did wear funny robes, have odd hair cuts and did everything by hand but when you examine their work you will find some surprisingly modern principles in its construction. They used “grid” layout systems, left justified text, a lot of “white space”, paragraph spacing, leading and emphasized words using colour and size. All of these principles we use today in our “modern” graphic design.

In the Attitude Design studio we really do value the idea of using “grids” – a grid subdivides a page vertically and horizontally creating margins, columns, and blocks of space between images and paragraphs. We use them all the time – not just in printed material but also in our website designs and the principles of which all started hundreds of years before a computer was even a twinkle in the computer maker’s eye.

In studying the art of grids for aesthetic and functional usage, one can not go far wrong in taking a look at the masters of the profession, the monks and scribes which pioneered the way in their medieval manuscripts.

So this “time machine” article takes us back to those ancient times. We hope you are as inspired as we are – you never know, you may be taking the grid from one of these manuscripts and applying it to your next corporate brochure!

In those days, from a design point of view, “the pen” really was “mightier than the sword”!

Enjoy…

Time Machine / WW2 Graphic Design

Attitude Design — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 11:39:19 +0000

Ladies and Gents, hello and welcome to the Time Machine where we take a look at some examples of graphic design from other eras to help inspire and influence us. Today it’s the WW2 years and we are focusing on British design for that era.

Obviously these were difficult years but they called for strong messages to be communicated. The simplicity and cleverness with which many of the below designs have been executed can only be marveled at. Many elements of the design were originally hand drawn and in regard to style we can see influences from modern art being made into expressive visual statements. Notice how the messages are clear and concise – something that’s worth bearing in mind in all marketing communications. Enjoy…

If you liked this Time Machine post then you might also like this one: Time Machine Part 1 / Victorian Design

Time Machine / Victorian Graphic Design

Attitude Design — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:26:17 +0000

It’s great to be inspired from by-gone eras. From clever concepts to layout and colours, looking back in time and gleaning these graphical gems can be profitable for any creative person especially a graphic designer. Welcome to the Time Machine part 1!

Today we go back in time to the Victorians. The Victorian era marked the height of the British Industrial Revolution. During the era historic styles and cross-cultural influences were revived which is why Victorian architecture, crafts and graphic design are so interesting. Also the Victorian era sparked a massive increase in regards to printing and although limited in comparison to today’s standards – with the explosion of home printers and printer ink cartridges - it’s extremely fresh. The Victorians were the first “graphic designers”, but even they were influenced from by-gone times.

Here is a collection of examples of Victorian graphic design:

I personally love the simplicity and the literal depictions. Also the cleanness and innocence of it all compared to the world we live in today. The typography is especially interesting.

So – be inspired and if you have a suggestion or comments use the comment form below…