2015 Design Trend: Modern Vintage
With the New Year beginning, here at InDesignSkills we’re casting a beady eye over last year’s dominant design trends and predicting what will be big in graphics and print in 2015.
One trend we’re excited about is the gradual move towards a more subtle, and all round much fresher, take on vintage styles in print design.
The hipster-led, letterpress-inspired styles of previous years are starting to look frankly a little old-hat. Instead we’re seeing a move towards beautiful contemporary designs that pick and choose from the best design lessons of Art Deco, Mid-Century and Soviet posters, book covers and typography.
Feast your eyes on some of the best recent examples of the trend across print design.
1. The Grand Budapest Hotel, Movie Poster Artwork
Wes Anderson’s critically acclaimed 2014 movie was inspired by the work of early 20th Century Austrian author Stefan Zweig.
Appropriately for the plot, set in a fictional Eastern European hotel between the Wars, the poster artwork was inspired by styles from the period, referencing Art Nouveau and Art Deco.The design styles’ qualities were exaggerated to give a comic, fairytale-like appearance to the poster artwork.
Lead Designer: Annie Atkins; in collaboration with Director Wes Anderson and Production Designer Adam Stockhausen
2. Stefan Zweig Book Covers from Pushkin Press
Pushkin Press is a UK-based publishing house with a fantastic track-record for exceptional cover design.
Last year and in 2015 too, Pushkin focusses its efforts on bringing Stefan Zweig’s work to a larger audience. Supporting the release of The Grand Budapest Hotel (see above) in 2014, they published The Society of the Crossed Keys, a selection of Zweig’s work, with a fabulously kitsch cover to match. Shooting Stars and The World of Yesterday also have wonderfully retro covers, referencing mid-century design styles.
Find out more about Pushkin’s cover designs here
3. Cover Design: Marshlands by Matthew Olshan
This cover for Olshan’s experimental and hard-hitting novel is a collage of vintage-inspired textures and colours, giving the design a raw, almost map-like feel. The influence of 1960s and 1970s styles is evident, and draws comparisons to old exercise books, giving the cover a rough, worn look.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
4. The Double, Movie Poster Artwork
An independent British film directed by Richard Ayoade, the cinematography for The Double stylishly nods to Film Noir and 1960s Brutalism.
The more commercial poster design is a fitting tribute to these styles, and a perfect example of the blend of vintage and modern graphic styles; but it’s the more interesting alternative poster that really captures our attention. A brutalist city-scape set in moody Soviet-style concrete, with a single lit figure, lends the artwork a sense of retro drama and foreboding.
Design by Empire Design; Check out The Double artwork and their other awesome movie poster designs here
5. Cover Design: The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt
An English-language edition of the much-cherished 1960s Dutch childrens classic, the cover for The Letter for the King, in both its original layout and its special winter edition (see second image down, below), owes much to the design styles favoured in the decade of its first publication.
Sketchy illustrations and lovingly hand-drawn typography, teamed with muted colours, give the book a love-worn design.
Publisher: Pushkin Children’s Books; Illustrations by Tonke Dragt
6. Cover Design: Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère
A fantastic book cover design drawing inspiration from Soviet poster art and 1980s graphics.
Designer Richard Green demonstrates how vintage styles can still have relevance today, connecting the cover design with the Soviet-era setting of the book, while bringing the style bang up to date.
Designer: Richard Green; Publisher: Penguin UK; Allen Lane
2015 is shaping up to be an exciting year for print design. We’ll keep you updated on the modern vintage trend as it develops!
Find more print design inspiration here. You can also check out our selection of great InDesign tutorials to develop your own print design skills.