Context & Identity (New Markets) Visual Essay

A look into Nostalgic-led design

By Jean Kayij

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The notion of nostalgia is widespread in many cultural practices; from fashion to, music, gaming, design. The retro tendencies are often brought to light due to an intrigue of the past (vintage). Nowadays there is a twist with social media with the idea of instant nostalgia, including the ‘throwback Thursdays’ and the ‘Flashback Fridays’ enabling the millennials (90.4% of millennials use social media, (Oberlo, 2019)) to feel that instant nostalgic feeling and get a feeling of the good old memories.

Fig1.1 Gadz, Jam Café, Nottingham

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Nostalgia led design is known to have two names, One known as restorative and the other known as Reflective.

Restorative derives from takin inspiration from the past and making it into your own. This very well correlates with current social media culture and the use throwback tags as well as throwback events to et a feel of the past. with the new age heavily invested in technology and millennials dominating the know-how of high quality technology, it shows a path that Spotify could possibly target when looking to creating a product. This was shown during the ‘New Markets’ Research were stats show the heavy usage of the Spotify is ran by 74% of millennials.

Fig1.2 – Fig1.5 Dezeen, Radio, 1980’s retro radio

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Valuables that are outdated often get recreated, recycled or rediscovered in the modern context. For example the 1970’s were known for being able to use products from the 1950’sas a way to revive the retro feeling. A good a example to sit on that was Vivienne Westwood's punk collection which involved heavy 1950’s influence . This is a way to revive a product that has been out of market for a long time but gets executed back in for that nostalgic feeling .

Fig1.6 – Fig1.8 Vivienne Westwood

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One of Vivienne Westwood’s influence was tailored partly from the 1950’s, from the teddy boys who were known for their Edwardian style of dressing with their own twist to it, long jackets, white socks that appeared clearly under the ankle lengthened trousers, worn vests and a skinny or western type tie. This can be seen nowadays with millennials on a daily rocking the rolled up denim trousers with white socks and white tennis trainers to get a good contrast.

Fig1.9 Nando’s corner house, Nottingham

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Now in this generation where a Millennials environment is mainly ran by technology nostalgia still reigns within popular culture. Instagram and snapchat display a variety of memories and nights out using the hashtag algorithms, allowing social Instagram and snapchat users to lay free rain on the throwback Thursday and flashback Friday hashtags to engage with one another. Millennials use the Internet to search for 00s and 90s archive clothes to wear.

Even though millennials have access to Spotify they still like the feeling of purchasing a vinyl player. (grazia daily).

Analysing the picture of Tyler the creator (Rapper/singer) who is 29 years of age (appropriate millennial age range) showcases a refined version of vintage clothing, with somewhat a similarity to that of the teddy boys with a sort of a modern Edwardian look. This led to realisation that millennials are more in tune to nostalgia than meets the eye and furthermore, it led to an implementation into the design idea regarding ‘New Markets’ Brief.

Fig2.0 Tyler The Creator

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Fig2.1 Fig2.1

Fig2.4 Fig2.4

Fig2.2 Fig2.2

Fig2.3 Fig2.3

Fig2.5 Fig2.5

The highly coveted designs in were well on display in Stockholm. The figures to the left were the pick of the bunch, they seemed to have more features that would associate with a vintage look. Although there was more of a contemporary look to the items at the design week, reading between the lines gave way to seeing a mimic of the past from the designs, for example (Figure 2.2) is a good example of what could be a vinyl player; the plate looks like the turntable along with the fork which would be a. The colours used for (Figure 2.5) look like a rusty colour that reminds you of a vintage aesthetic. (Figure 2.4) gives off a finish that is not fully finished but yet slightly scratched and etched.

Overall the New Market brief permitted expansion of understanding of a millennials mind on nostalgia, receiving various feedback from millennials expressing how they feel about the past eras and how they personalise their love of the past to recreate their own nostalgic moments in the present. From the use of social media, instruments clothing and many more, it shows how well equipped millennials are through gaining from the past.

Fig1.8 – Fig2.2 #NTUStockholm Fig1.8 – Fig2.2 #NTUStockholm

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Reference List

Stones, S. (2020), why do millennials love retro[online], p. 1 https://neconnected.co.uk/why-do-millennials-love-retro/ Spratt, V. (2016) Why Are Millennials The Most Nostalgic Generation Ever [online], p. 1 https://graziadaily.co.uk/life/opinion/millennials-nostalgicgeneration-ever/ Howarth, D. (2020) Braun Design at Paul Smith Albemarle Street by das programm [online], p. 1 https://www.dezeen.com/2013/09/29/braun-designs-at-paulsmith-albemarle-street-by-das-programm/ Garda, M. (2013) Nostalgia in Retro Game Design [online], p.

1-4 https://e-channel.med.utah.edu/wpcontent/uploads/2016/04/digra-2013-paper_310.pdf Page not Found https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2959100.2959120 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6566767

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List of Figures

1 Nostalgia 1.1 Jean Kayij Camera, Gadz, Jam CafĂŠ gig, Nottingham, (2020) 1.2 SF-SO homogenous touch speaker (2020) 1.3 Tischuper table radio (2013) 1.4 1980 retro party flyer (unknown) 1.5 1967 Lectron intercom (2013) 1.6 Teddy Boy competition, Nottingham 1956 (2015) 1.7 Vivienne Westwood ft teddy Boy (Pinterest) 1.8 Vivienne Westwood fashion (unknown) 1.9 Jean Kayij camera, Nando's corner house (2020) 2 NTUSTOCKHOLM 2.0 Tyler The Creator style (2019) 2.1 Instagram #NTUStockholm (2020) 2.2 Instagram #NTUStockholm (2020) 2.3 Instagram #NTUStockholm (2020) 2.4 Instagram #NTUStockholm (2020) 2.5 Instagram #NTUStockholm (2020)

JK

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