Vintage Label Design

Vintage designs have always been a trend, due, almost entirely to nostalgia. From architects in the 18th century replicating ancient Greek architecture to soda companies bringing back their old designs, seemingly done to evoke that feeling of “the good ol’ days”. Whether looking for a fresh design for your product or something entirely new for a milestone with a throwback feel to it, there are tons of interesting styles and designs to look back on.

Art Nouveau

A good place to start is with a style called “Art Nouveau”. From the 1890s to around 1910, this style is inspired by flowers, plants and young women. With it’s curved lines, intricate details, ornate patterns and contrasting colors. this design gives off a feeling of natural beauty rather than purposeful beautification.

Art Deco

The Roaring Twenties (1920s-1940s) is where we’ll next see a significant style that almost anyone can recognize: Art Deco. Comprised of nearly entirely man-made designs, geometrical, symmetrical and sprinkled in with the occasional idealized human figure. One thing that can be a big tip-off for the Art Deco style is the logo for the recent “Great Gatsby” movie. This style of design was inspired by pre-modern art and architecture while borrowing elements from other contemporary art movements like Cubism, Constructivism and Futurism. Flashy and ostentatious, Art Deco shows off a time in the world where loud music, moving pictures and starburst lights shined bright and proud.

Streamline Moderne

As a final example of a stylistic era is Moderne or Streamline Moderne which lasted from sometime in the 1930s into the 1940s. Moderne gets rid of all the fanciness and splendor of both Art Nouveau and Art Deco and moves more towards a sleek design with steel, aluminum, and chrome. The organic curves and repetitive geometric forms of the previous styles are replaced in favor of swooping lines, bullets and teardrops. This era was all about the advancement and streamlining of technology as well as speed and precision. Try not to get Moderne mixed with Art Deco. An easy way to remember the difference is: Triangular and jazzy? Art Deco. Sleek and shiny? Streamline Moderne.

Specific Designs

As much as these help as a reference to assist in the design process there are other things that can be utilized that may be more specific to current day needs. An example is something called “Letterpress”. These designs appear as though they were printed on something like an old fashioned printing press, with simple color palettes, olde type fonts and a distinguishing feature is the indented texture of the material. You can imagine the old letter press dropping down on each individual piece and pushing into the material.

Another popular design choice of the past are Badges. Reminiscent of when stamps were the only way to transfer graphics from one media to another, badges remind people of a time back in the 19th or 20th century. Back in the day badges could be made with carved wood or rubber or even wax similar to the way people used to seal their letters.

There are an infinite variety of design choices to pull inspiration from and it doesn’t much matter what is chosen as long as it evokes nostalgia. A strong sense of the past or the “good ol’ days” is what keeps people coming back to a product or service. Nostalgia can make something feel real and authentic while also giving off a sense of long-term establishment. These are all things people will be seeking in new products that they want to venture into or rely on in old ones that they trust. This is why it is wise to be prepared to offer these considerable design changes to customers as they need them. With in-house high quality printers and die-cutters any label manufacturer can be prepared for all the fancy new trends of 2019.

For more information on label design or digital label production check out. There are new posts on these subjects and more every week. All of these design choices can be printed on any one of our systems such as Arrow EZcut 330R, Arrow EZCut 350R , and finished on an Arrow EZcut 240+ or an ArrowCut Nova 250R .  If interested in learning more about how to make and produce labels like these please contact us.