Retro Futurism At Its Best: Designs and Tutorials
Concepts of the future for the way we live our lives have been expressed in forms of art, design, movies, comics, and even cartoons. For many decades before man even landed on the Moon, people have been fascinated with space and the endless possibilities it could bring. The future is not only about being in space, though it has a major influence, it lies within your innovative minds and skills as the designer and artist. So, whether you go back into the past or here in the present, the future is all that we envision.
It wasn’t too many years ago when amazing tools such as 3ds Max, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or even Corel Draw weren’t around. Illustrations were drawn by hand using chalks, colored pencils, paints, and pens. With typography, you could find artists/ designers also using fountain pens or calligraphy pens with a large variety of nibs, along with bottles of colored ink. Even today, you will still find designers and architects who use tools such as the t-square, triangular scales, triangle, french curve, and of course, your basic compass.
Times do change and so do the concepts of what to expect in the future. We would like to share with you a collection of retro futuristic designs and tutorials that will inspire you for your future creations. If you like the designs, please take the time to visit the sites of the artist/ designer by clicking on the illustration or title.
Beautiful Retro Futuristic Artworks
USS – a portfolio of probabilities
Vintage DHARMA ads
Incredible vintage Dharma Initiative posters created by Adam Campbell.
The Apple Store That Almost Was
Before there was the Apple Store that we know and love today, there was the Apple Cafe — well, almost. On November 12, 1996, Apple announced plans to open a chain of cybercafes around the globe. State-of-the-art, even by today’s standards, Apple Cafes promised health-conscious food (served up via a high-tech ordering system), video conferencing with neighboring diners, and on-demand access of movies and music videos. A screenshot from an old promo gives us a few clues as to how some of this might have worked.
“P” is for Possibilities of the Future
Exterior Double Cylinder Colony
Retro Futurism Artworks by Klaus Bürgle
Tutorials
Futuristic Athlete design and tutorial
Using multiple layers and brushes, this tutorial will show you how to create a futuristic athlete.
Creating The New Retro
Graphic designer James White shows you how to give retro-style graphics your own modern-day spin.
Speed Lightning Effect
This tutorial will show you how to manipulate natural lighting to fill a motion filled scene. Use masks to blend the effect over a car image to make the car appear to be in motion.
Design a retro futurism space scene
In this tutorial, you will learn how to design a retro-futuristic space scene, using a variety of lighting effects and photo manipulation.
How to Make Retro Futuristic Curves in 10 Steps
In this tutorial, you will learn how to achieve the space like scenery with the glowing lines. Using Illustrator and Photoshop you?ll learn how to add subtle effects using textures and different blending modes.
Futuristic Abstract Tutorial
In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a futuristic abstract poster design using layer styles, shapes and ‘space’ effects.
Steampunk Style Illustration
In this tutorial, you will be using light sources, shadows, and image grading to go back in time with this design.
Further Resources
- 50 Beautiful Movie Posters
- Grunge-style in Modern Web Design
- 30 Beautiful Vintageretro Photoshop Tutorials
- 50 Stunning PhotoShop Text Effect Tutorials
- 45 Vintage Space Age Illustrations
- Retro Futurism: In The Year 2000 Flickr Pool
- Future Past: 173 Radical Retrofuturistic Directions in Design & Technology
- Retro Futurism: Russian LiveJournal Community
DKumar M.
June 8th, 2009 2:46 pmNice Inspirational article sharon!! Now if only a lot of the older eastern block science fiction movies would become more readily available I would be happy.
Also found this link which holds more great example of Retro Futuristic Artwork. http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/11/retro-future-to-stars.html
DKumar M.
@instantshift
meks
June 8th, 2009 3:21 pmThe best retro-futurist design I’ve seen lately was the entire Fallout 3 video game.
Mugros
June 8th, 2009 3:29 pmI like many of the design. I really miss the older SciFi novel book covers.
Adrian A.
June 8th, 2009 3:30 pmExcellent! My fav is the Dharma Initiative poster. Good one :)
Anrkist
June 8th, 2009 4:35 pmVery nice… rare to see a theme like this. The Fudgegraphics tutorial looks great.
Darwin Santos
June 8th, 2009 5:56 pmAwesome. all of this reminds me back when i was a kid, the transformers were supposed to arrive in the year 2005 and it seemed so far back then, i even remember having arguments with my friends about which brand of car will start selling flying cars first. Great article.
Trevor Henry
June 8th, 2009 6:20 pmAs much as I love all of Scott Hansen’s work (and I definitely love it), that’s Andy Gilmore you’ve posted. Scott featured him in a blog post a few days ago.
The Dharma ads are absolutely awesome though.
Anwar Bendaoud Andersson
June 8th, 2009 6:20 pmI agree with the above comment regarding Fallout 3. That game is simply amazing in terms of both interface design and the graphics. Well deserving of a mention.
Creamy CSS
June 8th, 2009 10:52 pmFantastic! Really retro futurism,.. great post! Thanks!
irka
June 8th, 2009 11:00 pmguys, this is best SM article ever! I love s-fi and retro futurism.. and this is my subject for my next school project. You read in my mind, again :)
Lichtathlet
June 8th, 2009 11:05 pmAmazing!
moabi
June 8th, 2009 11:33 pmwow…amazing !!!
Line of Design
June 8th, 2009 11:42 pmVery inspiring collection… :)
Thanks
AnneFG
June 9th, 2009 12:05 amReally enjoyed this, one of my favourite features yet! Cheers!
Stryker
June 9th, 2009 12:15 amGreat collection. Also you could look more artworks here: http://www.splashnology.com/blog/inspiration/44.html
Thanks!
Tanaka13 - Créations du Net
June 9th, 2009 12:32 amvery nice collection!
Jay
June 9th, 2009 12:44 am+ 1 for Fallout (for all the series).
matt
June 9th, 2009 12:46 amI remember the sexy cyber girl from the 80′s – I’m sure it was used in a computer magazine @ the time, “Amstrad Action”..
This post makes me think of the film “Gattaca” Futurism meets Art Deco.
solemone
June 9th, 2009 12:58 amIsnt it Robot Rock and not Robert Rock ;)
Quakeulf
June 9th, 2009 1:03 amHoly smokes it’s like I’m growing up again! Nostalgia-goggles are on and they are thick and they heavily obscure my vision. :’3
STPo
June 9th, 2009 1:12 amNice selection!
What about Bioshock ?
federico
June 9th, 2009 1:18 amthank u guys , u made my day!!! i f£$%ing love retro futurism!!!!
Gerd Wippich
June 9th, 2009 1:54 amCool stuff. I want a robot for christmas.
kadaffy
June 9th, 2009 1:58 amhow cool is this, very~! Amazing art and emotion…Thanks very much for this article, is really inspired for me.
Bernat
June 9th, 2009 2:27 amTho I’m a big follower of Scott Hansen I have to say that his entry on this list is not his… It’s on a post about Andy Gilmore. I think you should change itl.
Valuchin
June 9th, 2009 2:56 amGenial!!!
Lars
June 9th, 2009 3:03 amso damn inspiring!
More plz!
Cathedral Graphic Design
June 9th, 2009 4:58 amDharma Initiative poster wins… I wonder if it’s possible to acquire a print of that! Nice post, some interesting stuff in there, thanks Smashing!
gamma-normids
June 9th, 2009 5:11 amOH, the Jetsons :D I looooved that movie when I was a kid.
The sexy robot poster looks so familiar, but can’t remember why.
Richard
June 9th, 2009 5:40 amSoooo inspring!
Robin Cannon
June 9th, 2009 6:42 amAdore this collection. It’s a genre that I love, and it has great design potential. What’s more, it’s a genuinely fun genre to design in. I think this, along with steampunk, are my favorite kind of designs to play with (retro futuristic tends to work better in a web medium).
chris
June 9th, 2009 7:21 amthis is kinda retro futuristic
Dusan Vlahovic
June 9th, 2009 8:15 amLove me some Retro Futurism! Thanks!
johnny5
June 9th, 2009 10:37 amCOOL STUFF MAN!
You should def check this out… Called an
electronic cigarette Tobacco companies are trying to keep it shush shush….
Echilon
June 9th, 2009 12:05 pmTigaer (author of Gates to Elysium) has some really great work on deviantArt which is similar.
Dain
June 9th, 2009 12:57 pmA very nice collection. I see quite a few Syd Mead works throughout. Every artist can learn much from this man.
Jehzeel Laurente
June 9th, 2009 2:49 pmWow! I love the Dharma ad. I’m a big fan of Dharma Initiative since I fell in love with LOST. Weeeeeeeee!
Gizelle
June 9th, 2009 7:33 pmI love retro! Good job..
Ashely Adams : Sticker Printing
June 10th, 2009 3:37 amScience meets art. What a nice walk down memory lane. I felt a sudden rush of nostalgia to see all those lovely retro posts. I remember reading that book “Future Cities” too sometime in my childhood. It came in a set of 3, the other titles being, (as far as I remember), “Robots” and “Future Travel”. I used to adore them.
roderic
June 10th, 2009 4:53 amCheck this designer out! His work is stunning and pure retro futurism
http://www.myspace.com/elmorales
Peter Nudo
June 10th, 2009 10:43 amI really love this post. I’m really into Retro Futurism as well right now and have been inspired greatly by James White, Chuck Anderson and the great up-and-coming Sakke Soini.
My approach is a little bit different than theres, but a combination of each. I try and kick out a new project each month, some are good, some aren’t: http://www.behance.net/peternudo
DJ
June 11th, 2009 12:17 amIt’s always nice to see one of my early books onscreen!
I conceived ‘Future Cities’ as part of a ‘World of the Future’ trilogy, with my sadly late collaborator, Ken Gatland, who had been President of the renowned BIS British Interplanetary Society.
The illustrator of this cover, the talented Brian Lewis, is also gone – he painted covers for the scifi mag ‘New Worlds’ (1960s-era) for several years.
Best wishes to all you futures enthusiasts out there.
Mark L.
June 13th, 2009 1:12 pmThe funny thing is that when those drawings were made people just knew that we’d be in flying cars and living on the moon by now. 2009 just “sounded” futuristic in the 60′s. Meanwhile one of the biggest advancements in the world is something no one saw coming: Twitter.
Shan
June 30th, 2009 11:45 amThere’s plenty of designs like these here: One On One Tutorials Truly inspiring website.
Khoi Nguyen
September 14th, 2009 9:46 amI always love a little bit of inspiration in my day!
Jonathan P
September 29th, 2010 9:05 ami think that this is another really nice example! http://jo-nic.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2rszpi anyway great pictures! cheers, jonathan
juan
April 17th, 2011 2:29 pm“The Apple Store That Almost Was” the first picture…. have you seen the T4 terminal airport of Barajas in Madrid?