In the world of design, originality is a desirable and highly respected trait in the byproducts of the creative process but is admittedly a difficult feat. So why go through all the trouble, when you can “borrow” ideas that have worked from the past and do it again?

It All Starts With The Past

According to the paper Nostalgia and Its Value to Design Strategy, Nostalgia is intangible but extremely powerful, not just occurring in the individual, but may serve as a collective socio-cultural phenomenon across a society. Just as designers utilize colors and shapes to evoke certain product experiences, nostalgia can be used to attract users who share the feelings for certain times.

Nostalgia is a complex emotion composed of a mixture of basic emotions, and so it may connotate different meanings. Some studies recall nostalgia as a negative emotion as the past can remind people of sadness and pain, while the majority of studies argue that nostalgia is a mostly positive emotion that is filled with sentiments of joy, pleasure, and satisfaction of the past. This positive connotation of nostalgia can explain why many people are attracted by “nostalgia-evoking” artifacts, even if they have never experienced it themselves.

Classification of the four types of nostalgia. Figure from Xue and Almeida, 2011

In the interest of directing marketing strategies, Holak and Havlena divides nostalgia into 4 classifications based on two dimensions: individual vs collective experience and direct vs indirect experience. From this matrix, the same paper then draws the different design strategies, placing them as inspiration or cues that can be used in the design process.

Inspirational sources for different Design strategies. Figure from Xue and Almeida, 2011

Customized design, which may be built in low-volume products can be stemmed from personal and interpersonal nostalgia, while Mass-production designs may stem from a wider group that feels nostalgic on a collective scale. From this strategy, we can properly analyze how certain retro-styled designs came to be, how some succeeded, and how some failed.

Emerging from the french word retrogarde, literally meaning directed or moving backwards, the word Retro emerged as early in the 1970s to describe new artifacts that self-consciously refer to particular modes, motifs, techniques and materials of the past (Dermody, 2009)

Today, we mostly understand retro as a callback to lifestyles, trends, and culture from the past. While similar words like vintage share some meaning, Elizabeth Guffey distinguishes retro as a form of dissatisfaction with the present time, fueled with nostalgia from the past. The phrase “Back in my days…” perfectly reflects this fact.

When Retro-styling Works

The 2021 Ford Bronco with its 1966 counterpart. Picture by Nick Miotke/ Roadshow

Retro-styling is prevalent in the design of all kinds of different objects, from chairs to posters to entire buildings, but there is no better way to look at the appeal and success of retro-styling in design than the Automotive Industry.

Taking a look at the colorful history of the Automotive (particularly car) shows splashes of revivals, reboots, and homages in almost every single decade. From the 1998 Volkswagen Beetle, the 2021 Ford Bronco, to the 2000 PT Cruiser, it appears that the desire for old cars in the present day is as timeless as their original designs.

Accounting to the many factors of nostalgia, it is no wonder that most of their retro-styled cars became a massive hit. The Volkswagen Beetle would incite a revival in many automotive marquees and automakers began to scramble to capture the craze for retro-vehicles, and cars like the Chrysler PT Cruiser sold nearly 150,000 cars in 2001, customers view them as desirable and Chrysler even struggled to keep them in stock. Many soon followed, such as Chevrolet with its HHR, Ford with the Thunderbird, and BMW reviving Mini into its own brand.

A quirky little vase for a quirky little car! Image from Volkswagen

These revivals and demand for a nostalgic past, stems from the dissatisfaction of the present. For context, when the new Beetle rolled out, the car industry was plagued by years and years of square-shaped econoboxes that all looked the same, the Beetle was then a fresh take in an industry that was heavily saturated. Volkswagen put time and effort to make sure the new Beetle had an experience that was mostly the same to the original, and people liked that it was shaped just like the one from the sixties, that it had a small acrylic vase to put flowers it; It was “Just like the good ol’ days.”

So why is it, in spite of how much people seemingly squeal at the thought of a retro revival, that most cars aren’t shaped like hotrods and have huge fenders straight out of the 50s?

Retro… Or Outdated?

The PT Cruiser, one of the most infamous names in automotive history. Image by IFCAR

While retro-styling can be a desirable trait and a fun-filled blast to the past, it is a victim of its own success: while certain visual and clever design cues can activate a sense of joy and happiness, you can never change the fact that they are from a time that doesn’t exist anymore.

The Volkswagen Beetle with its quirky vase is a good example of this. While the bud vase was a clever homage to the heritage of the original Beetle, it was plainly a gimmick that didn’t serve much purpose. Sure, in the past people but flowers in cars to offset the burning smell from the engine, but those days are long gone. It didn’t help that the Beetle was a case of form over function; the interior was cramped, cargo space was limited, and while it was pretty to look at, it’s price tag wasn’t. Volkswagen would try again in 2011 but eventually retired the model altogether in 2019.

Youtuber and Doug Demuro famously crushed a PT Cruiser with a Hummer. Picture from Doug Demuro

While the Chrysler PT Cruiser sold well, had its 150,000 units sold pale in comparison with 900,000 Ford F-series sold the same year. The PT Cruiser was also an example of the many caveats of retro-styling: if you make something styled to look old, it will unsurprisingly attract a lot of older customers while newer customers can’t relate enough to the homages made. Add that with a combination of mechanical failures, a shockingly low measure of quality, and a design that aged poorly, Chrysler pulled it from shelves in 2007.

The MINI’s Union Jack tail lights. Picture from Reddit User AurricX

While cars like the MINI would outlive the Beetle, it did so by marketing it not as a retro rehash, but as a British cultural icon, which capitalized on increasing nationalistic sentiments in the United Kingdom (complete with Union Jack tail lights!). The subsequent branding of the MINI captured not only the older generations who had personal nostalgia, but also the new generation who experienced virtual nostalgia.

The story of the Beetle and the PT Cruiser is roughly the same: while retro-styling and taking a trip to the past would be a fun concept, we often overlook the many bitter facts of the past; Cars in the past looked sleek and amazing but were death traps, Pop-up headlights looked cool but were impractical, Large V8s sound and feel amazing but are horribly inefficient. It can’t escape the fact that a design from 50, 30 or 10 years ago just wouldn’t work in today’s world.

It’s Not Just Cars…

For instance, Apple’s software design in its early touch screen years championed skeuomorphism, displaying photorealistic images of existing objects in its interface like knobs, microphones, buttons and more. It worked at the time, as many people needed “adjustment” with Apple’s new touchscreen design, but just like the PT Cruiser and the Beetle, they didn’t last long, and by 2014 it was ditched in favor of minimalist graphics for practical reasons, as they were easier to scale, looked much better, and skeuomorphism have (mostly) stayed in the past.

As time went on and minimalism started to get monotonous, that nostalgic feeling of the past comes back, and while many would wonder what skeuomorphism would look in the present day- no one actually does it, because it wouldn’t make any sense in today’s era. Some things can succeed with retro-styling, but it usually ends up feeling awkward and the charms wear off as quickly as it comes.

So when the question “how would an object from the 80s look like today” arises, ask the better question: “Why would you want an object from the 80s today?”

The UX Collective donates US$1 for each article published on our platform. This story contributed to Bay Area Black Designers: a professional development community for Black people who are digital designers and researchers in the San Francisco Bay Area. By joining together in community, members share inspiration, connection, peer mentorship, professional development, resources, feedback, support, and resilience. Silence against systemic racism is not an option. Build the design community you believe in.