[EFFALO]

There is a certain quality of the graphic design, colors, typography, and layout of the "vintage" planning & marketing materials shown here that I just can't put my finger on why I like it so much. Perhaps a certain richness from the inks that were available and the type of tools used to produce it.

Whatever it is, it feels authentic and hopeful. I love the sense of optimism that the graphics (and history shared in this article) invokes. Great stuff.

[pjc50]

A mixture of change of materials (some of those are clearly paintings done in acrylic that have been photographed then used for colour plates), and change in style - at the moment we're in a backlash against the use of multiple colours, as well as any kind of clashing. This would absolutely be laughed out of the office today: https://www.airporthistory.org/uploads/1/2/1/4/121407428/cdg... - because green and purple are high-contrast colours.

[marcosdumay]

There's something with the non-realistic hand drawing, that puts emphasis on some very specific points. You can't get a similar result with computer aided realistic images.

There is also that the designer seems to really empathize with the message. It's hard to find material nowadays that even has a message, the designer empathizing with it is really rare.

[zackmorris]

As a child of the 80s, I can definitely say that life in past decades was "brighter" then than it is now, although it's for reasons unrelated to graphic design. What it basically comes down to is, we used to dream and fantasize about possible futures and our contributions to it in a way that was nurtured by society. There was a general feeling that we had grown beyond the profit motive, or at least, that prosperity was increasing faster than effort.

Basic etiquette was better. Well-read people like Carl Sagan were listened to. People could have a modicum of respect in their communities as simple professionals like teachers/architects/doctors/lawyers/etc. Children were allowed to be children. We had movies like The Goonies, which illustrated the ills of society (like unrestrained real estate development) and provided a counterculture message of hope.

I'm in danger of straying into the rise of fear-based dystopia post-2000 so I'll leave it at that. I think that we can get back to the optimism of past decades, but it requires looking past the superficial and understanding that real prosperity is more about opportunity and a feeling that we're all equal and helping to build a better world together.

[theandrewbailey]

> I'm in danger of straying into the rise of fear-based dystopia post-2000 so I'll leave it at that.

That rise happened in the 90s, if not earlier. Remember the sensationalism about people getting killed because of Y2K bugs?

[pjc50]

Whereas in the 80s the fear of civilization-wide extermination through nuclear war was widely present, in films and even pop songs. Y2K was the rare occasion where the sensationalism got the problem fixed, so nobody believes it was ever a risk. Like CFCs.

No, the 90s was a quiet time for everyone west of Yugoslavia and north of the Mediterranean. The "end of history" between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the World Trade Center.

I sometimes think we don't do futurism any more because we spent so much effort looking forward to the future of 2000, and there's no big date to look forward to quite like it.

[ahartmetz]

When I buy picture books for children, I will not buy anything that was obviously made on a computer. They look so bland and lifeless. (I don't care how it was actually made, it's about the look of the result.)

[ArtWomb]

It's made by humans. With formal, classic training in plastic arts. By hand. Without Adobe tech. Using only pen, ink, charcoal, and paint

Sometimes looking at 1920-30s High Modernist design, it suggests that "new dawn" in human affairs, the sort of confidence people used to have in science triumphing over superstition ;)

[mannykannot]

Though I know nothing about the materials used, it looks to me like the aesthetic of Chesley Bonestell's space exploration images, and also of '2001' - as can be seen in the "Envisioning 2001: Stanley Kubrick’s Space Odyssey" exhibition, currently at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, NYC.

[duxup]

Yeah it seems like "the future".

With the exception of the planes that all seem to be careening out of control...