Vintage and retro elements for your next design inspiration

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Vintage feature images

In this so unstable world, you might want your products or design have a vintage or retro look and feel sometimes to trigger nostalgia and ease in mind. So in this article, we will mention the followings:

  • The differences between vintage and retro style
  • Why and when to use vintage design
  • Some design elements from illustAC as inspiration for your next designs

Vintage & Retro – What’s the difference?

Vintage is a term normally used for something actually produced in the past, and typical of the period in which it was made.

Retro is typically used to refer to something modern but similar to styles from the past.

Nowadays the two term are often used interchangeably.

When to use vintage designs?

What are your very first feelings when encountering a vintage design? Do you feel nostalgia or comfort or stable? I bet the answers will be always Yes. It’s true to say that vintage design evokes emotions related to the past in people of all age. Hence, it would be a great choice if you want to highlight the traditional or handmade feature of your products, like handicrafts or something else made with traditional recipes and manufacturing methods.

Vintage styles are timeless, too. There is no end to this trend. So if you don’t want your products look outdated someday, vintage would be safe.

However, don’t use vintage styles for the products that involve fast-paced development and have nothing to do with nostalgia. For example, vintage styles are not suitable for technology products at all. Using vintage styles for technology products makes them look outdated, slow, and inconvenient.

So before deciding the styles, you should consider:

  • What are your competitors doing? Why did they choose vintage styles?
  • What do you want to communicate by using vintage styles to your core customers or users?
  • What might be the potential disadvantages when using vintage styles for your designs?

Of course, you don’t need to make it full-on vintage. A clever and creative combination between vintage and modern elements might result in some serendipitous surprises.

Let’s take a look at some vintage and retro elements that can be download for free from illustAC as below:

illustAC – ACworks

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