Retrofuturism: What is it?
Hello Earthlings! Due to the nasty cough taking a very
long time to resolve, no crafting activity on Planet Nice projects has
occurred since January. To my surprise, the cough was not due to sinuses being
out of balance but instead a virus – not the flu, just something else I picked
up and furthered its path to other hosts, probably. This has been a challenge
in multiple ways, especially not taking advantage of the Southern light
exposure streaming into my work area, but I carry on.
Sewing has been ongoing as the College of Lake County
prepares for its opening night next weekend of “As You Like It” by William
Shakespeare. Because I have no project progress to share, I am going to share knowledge
on a design style called Retrofuturism which was I don’t want to say popular,
but came to the buffet table of design in the 1960s and 1970s. It combined an
optimism for the future, a fascination with space and technology, and streamlined
shapes. Think the Jetsons.
What brought my attention was an article in the Financial
Times by Katrina Burroughs, entitled “To Boldy Retro” in the print version and “Interiors
get the Jetsons Look” in the online version. Click here for the online version, at the very least to see the pictures. I liked the use
of color and curved shapes, maybe not the minimal decoration so much. The 1970s are
an interesting time of design because there are so many influences including
folk, decadence, pattern, color, and rebellion from the extreme minimalism of modernism.
When thinking about how to share retrofuturism with you, I
thought to go through the Planet Nice photo, object and printed material
archive. My first thought was this dining table and chairs that was seen in a
thrift shop 4 years ago – I snapped a photo because at the time I thought it
was catchy. The photo was refreshed in Photoshop with a nice gradient background.
My second thought was seeing the object the arrow is
pointing to in one of the article’s photos:
Source: “Interiors get the Jetsons look” by Katrina Burroughs,
Financial Times.
Photo Credit: Paolo Petrignani.
Courtesy of Achille Salvagni Atelier
It is blurry in the photo above, and has better
resolution in the print version. But that decoration instantly made me think of
this paperweight object that I purchased in Bayeux, France:
In the printed material area, these stamp souvenir folder covers
AND the stamps made me think retrofuturism, the first, New York one more so
than the second, Geneva one:
Lastly, these dresses from Golden Hands magazine (a
UK craft magazine with excellent text and diagrams in this time period):
What do you think of this style? Do you have any objects that
would have this spirit?
Famous buildings that could be considered to have “Jetsons like”
or retrofuturist architecture include the TWA terminal at JFK by Eero Saarinen.
In this Business Insider article, there are both vintage and recent photos. It recently
went through a redevelopment to become the TWA hotel.
Another architect is Oscar Niemeyer from Brazil. Here is a great photo collection from Architectural Digest showing some of his work.
Finally, a name that everyone should be familiar with, though
admittedly it was not on the tip of my tongue an hour ago, is Raymond Loewy. An
industrial designer who basically could design anything and did design prolifically, greatly
influencing the definition of Americana. Here are a couple links to images of
his wide breadth of work: a gallery from his estate’s website and an article from The Verge.
I hope you have found this month’s installment interesting and
educational. I know I have putting it together. The goal is to report projects’
progress next month. Until then, be well.
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