And what is retro anyway?

Modern verus retro, it’s a recurring theme – retro.

Now, I’m no groovy child of the 60‘s – not even the 70s really. Nor am I a Dunlop, Green Flash junkie. I’ve never had long hair, I don’t have a beard and I don’t wear flares – not since I was one year old anyway.

So why am I increasingly being told that my designs are ‘a bit retro’? I wonder, are they retro or are they modern? Do we need all those effects or should we boldly favour simplicity? Can FMCG packaging forgo all the bells and whistles? And what is retro anyway? Let’s find out.

Coca-Cola – now there’s a retro redesign.

Strip back all the bubbles, swooshes, embellishments and drop shadows until your left with solid red and the most famous logo in the world – one that was drawn in 1885. It couldn’t be any more retro! Flat colour and an old fashioned script – retro. Or is it modern?

I can imagine the meetings:

We need to give the customer a taste sensation with the eyes! We need ice crystals so it looks cold even when it isn’t! We need bubbles so people know it’s fizzy! And maybe some swooshes for energy and fun! Yeah!

Cut the crap.
It’s Coke.

And that’s exactly what Anglo-American design agency, Turner Duckworth, did. They stripped it back to the brand in its purest form in a celebration of purity, minimalism, modernism and...er...retro.

I didn’t say that.

In a Creative Review article, August 2009, Patrick Burgoyne interviewed the Coke client, Pio Schunker. He talks of how as a client, he wanted to work with agencies that would challenge Coke, rather than doing what they thought Coke would want. His job as ‘vice president for creative excellence’ is to take revolutionary concepts and sell them internally up the chain.

For both Schunker and Turner Duckworth, that means a lot of presentations and patience. Working through a huge organisation, with such a radical design, for the world’s biggest brand is not exactly a walk in the park.

The end result was worth fighting for in my retro opinion. It’s really a thing of beauty. I love the glorification of the world’s most famous logo and the love of pure typography and a simple brand icon – the dynamic ribbon.

So why such a tough battle for such beauty?

My belief is that within most organisations there is an internal mythology about what makes good design which is simply inaccurate. Once these philosophies have engrained themselves within an organisation, it is very difficult to reverse.

The trends, aesthetics and graphic techniques of contemporary design change frequently. As designers it’s our jobs to have an awareness of changing trends.

Internal brand managers are less current with design trends, so what we experience is a lag. Clients tell us that things look retro when in fact the opposite is often true. This is because they are behind the curve.

Amongst the uneducated there are a few recurring themes that come up that contradict the teachings of design. More colour is better than less colour. Energy should be present in EVERYTHING. And big type is better than small type.

When we learn design we learn that if everything is big and loud, then in fact nothing is loud. Yet how often do we hear that everything needs to be shouting or working harder. There is such a thing as communication hierarchy.
 
It’s not their fault though. Few, if any, marketing courses teach a design component. So how can brand managers hope to brief, appraise and approve good design, if they are not armed with the correct education?

Instead, they can only rely upon personal taste to direct the aesthetic of a brand. This can lead to some very generic looking brands.

I blame the internet.

In this world of web 2.0 everything is shiny, beveled, drop-shadowed and ‘dynamic’. It’s a visual assault on the eyes.

Every few seconds we’re exposed to more and more visual pollution produced by laymen in their bedrooms. The internet has visually polluted the world. But it’s an aesthetic that’s commonly accepted as normal.

Nothing’s new anymore.

We live in a world of mash-ups where styles from yesteryear are recycled into new ones. Everything’s retro. Fashion and design in particular draw huge inspiration from past decades as these were the years of invention and in many cases, a lot of style.

Some of the greatest typefaces ever made were made in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Helvetica and Avant Garde to mention just two.

Yes, I understand that the world of FMCG packaging is about shelf presence, standout and contrast. Does that mean everything must be 3D and beveled? We’re not on the internet all the time.

In fact, with all the brands competing to shout loudest, the more simple designs are quietly standing out like a sore thumb. Remember being different?

What we are experiencing is the hang-over from the 90s.

We went through a lot of bad stuff in that decade and it just keeps hanging around. Before then design was great! Look at some of the most timeless logos created in the 60s, 70s and 80s such as Nike, Adidas and IBM. Simplicity of form and flat colour was all the rage. Apple finally caught on when they ditched their multi-coloured logo in favour of the retro, flat one we have today. Very modern.

I saw a KFC refit the other day. I thought that looked beautifully simple and bold in it’s refreshed look. Retro, no doubt about it. Very modern though. PK gum, it still looks amazing. Muji is very minimal, very retro, very modern.

I still think that the Corona bottle is the best beer bottle in the world – retro. Every other car I see is a Mini Cooper – very retro. I have three Adidas tracksuit tops – totally retro. Camper shoes – cool retro. Vespa scooters will alway be retro – always cool.

The point is, retro is irrelevant.

With trends changing every five minutes and running concurrently, it’s no surprise that consumers, and clients, can barely keep track. The world is visually noisy and all the trends of yesteryear, the web and everything else has resulted in a mashed-up aesthetic where anything can be considered current.

What hasn’t changed though are those fundamentals of good design. Form, colour, typography, space and simplicity will always be the principals which underpin good communication, elegance and beauty. Anything else is just padding.

Hopefully soon, maybe more brand managers will realise that being modern doesn’t necessarily mean more effects, that simplicity is beautiful and that less is more – just ask Coke.

I’m off to put flowers in my hair.

Chris Maclean, creative director, Interbrand.