Recent Relics
As part of my design process (and just for fun), I love perusing antique and vintage shops to thumb through graphic design techniques from bygone eras. Part of the appeal is getting eyes on analog printing styles, pre-digital design decisions, and period-authentic type treatments that reveal different aesthetic priorities and production constraints.
I also love the hands-on nature of print ephemera and package design — how the paper catches the light, registration imperfections, fingerprints, wrinkles, and tears — pieces that communicate even more of a story than their graphics convey, hinting at the multiple pairs of hands that went into creating even the simplest advertisements or products.
Street signage offers another captivating form of inspiration. While walking in a new city or driving through a rural small town, the designs that make up a town’s way finding, adorn local establishments, and fade into old brick buildings always add charm, nostalgia, and a sense of place to the visit.
I regularly photograph these findings and refer back to them in my research, and I thought I’d share them here as potential inspiration for others as well. Planning to add more images on occasion, as I continue to discover new (old) gems.
