ElectricSun

Alex Varanese has re-designed some commonplace objects from present day as if they were being marketed back in the 70′s. Lovely designs and a great sense of humour.
See the rest of this ALT/1977 series on Behance.

Delicious Industries recently posted their Auto Type VI collection of vintage typography from various car makers around the work.

Original post at Delicious Industries.

Play a version of the retro game, ‘Pong’ with your browser windows. Genius.

‘Forty-four Sixteen’ BMX T-shirt by ElectricSun… Available NOW!

The early eighties. Long hot summer holidays (or at least that’s how we like to remember them).

The tread of Comp III tyres sinking into the park tarmac as it baked in the sunshine. Pedalling for miles to the nearest BMX track to jump the double whoops or tabletop, perhaps daring to do a cross-up mid air. Or maybe constructing wobbly ramps out of scraps of wood and bricks found on building sites, whilst listening to the fresh sounds of ‘electro’ and ‘rap’ music tapes on a ghetto-blaster.

Through the influence of BMX magazines such as ‘BMX Action Bike’ and ‘BMX Bi-Weekly’, we spent most of our spare time longing to be like our state-side heroes, trying to replicate their signature tricks that they made look so easy, and miraculously dodging A&E.

But whether you raced or not, the ultimate accessory had to be a number plate. This ElectricSun T-shirt looks back to the iconic plate designs from the beginning of the decade as the sport was taking off on a massive scale, and uses the original number typography sported by many racers of the day. This Tee is dedicated to the legendary riders of that era, such as Bob Haro, R.L. Osbourne, Harry Leary, and Eddie Fiola (to name but a few), who paved the way for the future of BMX and inspired kids globally. ElectricSun salute you!

Riders ready… Pedals ready… GO!

This heavyweight T-shirt (205 gsm) is made from 100% pre-shrunk cotton and has a soft, quality feel. It features a seamless collar, taped neck and shoulders, and twin needle stitching. It is light blue (Pantone 277) and has 4 screen-printed colours (white, red, blue and black) on the front… check out the photos of the production process on Flickr. This design has had an initial print run of only 30 Tees, each one individually numbered and available exclusively in our online store.

Available in sizes M / L / XL. For size information (in millimeters), click here.
To calculate the cost in your currency, click here.
For delivery costs and details, click here.

Price: £17.99 (+ P&P)

  .

I think I might have died and gone to heaven…

ReBirth, the classic Roland Synth emulator that was introduced in 1997, has now been (re)born again on the iPhone. Featuring TWO classic TB-303s, a TR-808 and a TR-909 with full pattern sequencer and effects units, it is possibly the closest you’ll ever get to the original hardware without shelling out a load of cash.

I am a great fan of the 303 (check out the ElectricSun T-shirt) and was surprised when Propellerheads gave up on ReBirth. My copy for Mac OS 9 couldn’t migrate to OS X, so I was left searching for an alternative. It has been available for free download for older operating systems (pre OS X and Vista) since 2005.

There have since been a few 303 emulators and I was delighted when Technobox was released for the iPhone, but this is the real deal. Yes it’s fiddly, but it won’t disappoint. This version will put a smile on your face for £3.99 on iTunes!

More details at Propellerheads.se

‘I Love Acid’ T-shirt by ElectricSun… Available now!
Cast your mind back, if you can, to 1988 and the (second) ‘Summer of Love’. Illegal parties were being hosted in inconspicuous venues up and down the country and the headline-grabbing acid house phenomenon was everywhere. Drug use and police raids fuelled negative press coverage, but the psychedelic sound of acid house had a defining role in the development of electronic music and became a part of music history.

Rather than focusing on the narcotic, this ElectricSun T-shirt is dedicated to the machine that made it all possible over 20 years ago – the Roland TB-303. The unique squelchy sound of the 303 dominated the latter part of the 80′s club and rave culture, and still continues to appear on tracks to this day. As well as acid house, 303 basslines could also be heard on more radio-friendly tunes such as Shannon’s ‘Let the Music Play‘,

Heaven 17′s ‘Let Me Go‘,

and Orange Juice’s ‘Rip It Up‘.

Explore the acid sound… listen to these four classic tracks in the player below:
01: Phuture Phantasy Club – Slam
02: Fast Eddie – Acid Thunder
03: Humanoid – Stakker Humanoid
04: A Guy Called Gerald – Voodoo Ray

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This heavyweight T-shirt (185 gsm) is made from 100% pre-shrunk ring-spun cotton and has a soft, quality feel. It is crisp white and has two screen-printed colours (black & red) on the front and one colour (black) on the back… check out the photos of this being printed on Flickr. This design has had an initial print run of only 50 Tees, each one individually numbered and available exclusively online.

Available in sizes S / M / L / XL. For size information (in millimeters), click here.
To calculate the cost in your currency, click here.
For delivery costs and details, click here.

Price: £17.99 (+ P&P)

Vintage Ad Browser is a wonderfully comprehensive site, crammed with pictures of press advertisements from all industries, ranging from the late 19th century through to the noughties. Many have a retro appeal and some are firmly stuck in their era, but the most interesting are the ones created before the days of DTP software (and thats going back a bit).
Use of blantant sexist and borderline racist copy is surprisingly common prior to the 70′s for certain types of products, but sadly seems to be a reflection on the social attitudes at the time. Thankfully, the advertising machine is a lot more sophisticated these days. I got lost for ages trawling through the images on the site… see how many you remember.

Check out some of the stylish retro film posters created for Disney here, beautifully illustrated by Eric Tan.

As a child, this was my favourite part of the whole show and quite possibly the highlight of my Saturday morning. For a children’s programme, it was oddly psychedelic and has a great funky 70′s soundtrack that descends into random freestyle jazz.