• Graphic Design

Vintage and Retro Style Typography in Logo Design

Whether you’re going back to the 1980s with graffiti-style type or you’re adding a touch of class with a Victoriana-inspired font, vintage typography is super-current in logo design right now. We all love a bit of nostalgia, but there’s more to retro typography than just taking a sentimental stroll down memory lane. You want your brand to have a hand-crafted vibe? Use vintage typography. You want to create the assurance of quality? Go to vintage typography. What’s more, mining the resources of the past can also put you right at the forefront of current trends, depending on what decade is hot right now. During early Britpop years it was all about the swinging sixties. The late 1990s were all about the seventies. The late 2000s were all about the 1980s. Sounds confusing? Take a look at this showcase and you’ll soon see what we mean.
 

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Straight from the cover of a Mamas and Papas album, this typography perfectly reflects the glory days of California in the late 1960s. It’s a clean sans serif font that encapsulates hippy-credentials and late 90s skater culture in one fell swoop.
 

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This logo not only uses vintage typography, it also place it within a retro badge for instant quality, heritage and confidence.
 

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Austin Powers-inspired typography for a fluid, ‘groovy’ edge that’s as smooth as the international man of mystery himself.
 

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Another 1960s treatment, this time used in branding that’s incredibly reminiscent of old-school children’s television and The Beatles circa 1965.
 

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Travelling back to the 1940s, here we have a non-cursive typographical treatment that suggests power, trust and self-assurance. Note the restrained use of colour and limited use of decorative elements too.
 

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Authoritative branding that’s striking without shouting. We love the clean sans-serif type and the cool way the letters A and C have been combined to create the skateboard.
 

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This Victorian treatments creates a heritage-feel by combining three fonts in one logo. A brave technique that requires seamless integration but is one of the main ways to suggest historic branding from the 19th century.
 

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1950s-Americana is in every element of this mark, from the handwritten script and cartoon dog to the pixilated illustration and faded colour palette.
 

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Another treatment that does 19th century by combining several different vintage typefaces. It suggests quality and gives the brand a strong sense of history. The simple use of colour and excellent balance of space stops the mark from descending into chaos.
 

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Like the centre of an old 7-inch single, this fun logo has the early 1960s all over it. From the caravan-coloured palette to the different-sized stars it’s the kind of branding that springs to mind when we hear the word retro. The way the type extends to form the perimeter of the circle is nice attention to detail too.
 

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About the author

Amie is a creative content writer and marketer working at WhoIsHostingThis.com, an independent hosting review website.