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.