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Vintage logo designs are all around us nowadays.

Each and every day you will find new, impressive collections of retro logos, old school logos, and some pretty amazing retro logo designs.

Vintage logo elements are also incorporated into modern projects, just to add that vintage touch.

Regardless of whether you want to get a vintage logo or retro logo for yourself, or you’re looking at vintage logo ideas, you do need to know what’s in and what isn’t. There are a lot of options, from a vintage circle logo, to a vintage badge logo, and even a modern vintage logo.

However, not all of them work everywhere. Read on for a few vintage logo design tips and tricks, and see where to get that retro logo design inspiration you need.

Why is the vintage logo design popular?

Retro and vintage designs aren’t affected by time, taste, age or style. The web design templates with a vintage logo are very well received by a lot of people with different backgrounds.

The vintage logo design, be it a badge logo or any other old school logos you might run into, often focuses on a certain ear or culture, however they also enjoy a loyal follower group around the world. The color scheme is usually a middle ground between a colorful and dull one.

When you’re combining things into a modern vintage logo, you do get a vintage appeal.

Old things are usually associated with value, and retro logo design tends to keep this tendency alive.

The “value” part will draw in visitors, and the modern design elements will keep them there. Therefore, retro designing will get you the best of both – a vintage look and modern design.

There is also a touch of romanticism in web design that has been brought here, and many web surfers can be found guilty of romanticizing such old things. Most of them have that feeling that when they were younger, in college, life was much more relaxed, less stressful, and that is exactly where a retro design will take you.

Back to those memorable days when everything was more relaxed.

There are several approaches, and you will find repetition with certain elements. For example, a very popular element here are handwritten scripts.

There is also a rapid rise in the usage of old cars, old fashioned photos, as well as early electronic devices or other retro product models, just to perfectly recreate that retro look.

Some might opt for pin-up girls’ images, others go for military themes, such as old badges and war planes. There are a couple of crucial elements here, so let’s take a look at them below.

Shapes and illustrations in vintage logos

For a retro look, simple shapes can do wonders. One common element is different sized circles, and if you go through the designs of some famous eras, you will find how those simple shapes were used back then to achieve maximum impact.

Bright colors and floral backgrounds were used in situations where you wanted to draw attention, and the techniques are pretty widely adapted by a lot of designers.

Color schemes for retro logos

The most noticeable thing about retro designs is the limited use of the color palette.

Since full color printing used to be very expensive, designers limited how much colors they used in their designs.

The most commonly used setting was two-toned coloring, where usually a focal color was selected, and then blended with another color to create a pretty unique theme.

Typography in retro logo design

Typography has always been present when designing a retro site. The designers tend to use pretty simple techniques, such as duplicating and pixel strokes, as well as repositioning of fonts, to add a pretty unique flavor to their design.

Borders

A pretty fascinating part of retro logo designs, and retro site designs as well, is the use of borders.

You can use them for a lot of things, from creating a focus area, to framing a picture or highlighting content.

You also get the option to choose between matching, solid colors, or ornamental designs.

Textures and noises in vintage logos

If you want a visually appealing retro design, you can always opt for a subtle, discrete use of noise and texture in the background.

Some designers here opt for a background with a worn out look, and others go for a poster artwork with more subtle colors.

These vintage designs are stunning, from the stained structures to the blending of the brush works.

Pattern overlays and drop shadows are also commonly used, and all of them are usually very easy to create with Photoshop and other design tools.

Logos and badges

A vintage logo, be it a vintage badge logo or a vintage circle logo, is a crucial part of the whole design.

They tend to have a round shape, and have a fluttering slim banner as well. The colors used are commonly subtle and contrasting, and they can easily be created with Photoshop, just like the noises and textures we were discussing a minute ago.

Vintage badges

At the core of vintage logo design is the badge concept. The goal for a badge is a simple shape that looks nice, and you can still stamp it on just about anything, anywhere.

You will find a lot of shields, hexagons and diamonds, but by far the most popular shape, are circles.

Hand drawn items

The hipster, retro movement has a love for everything handmade. Logos with a hand drawn look, or a sketchy look, will fit really well here, and you will be impressed by the artistic talent in this specific category.

Industrial design

If we turn back to the 20^th century design, you will find that those logos manage to convey a bold visual statement, yet there are no feathered shadows or gradients, even 3D renders, to be seen.

There is, however, a strong use of graphical icons, such as hammers, wrenches, axes and factories, unlike the Wi-Fi signals and clouds of today.

It is pretty natural for this generation, which is actually a pretty tech-savvy one, to be drawn to these icons and visuals that truly remind us of this industrial revolution.

We sit at our desk, and we actually have a quiet respect for all the people who built us this world we’re living in, through sweat, not keystrokes or mouse clicks.

The sea and land

Vintage logo designs also often tend to come with animals which have antlers. Regardless of whether it’s a deer, moose, elk – if it has antlers, it can be used here.

This works well with the outdoors trend noticeable in these types of logos, and you will also find a rise in popularity with nautical themes.

Ropes, fish and anchors can be used for great graphical elements.

Coffee and alcoholic drinks

Some things never change, and one of those things is mankind’s love for coffee and beer. These two liquids are excellent subjects for vintage art, in great part due to the shared affinity with our ancestors.

Photos with logos

A few years ago, when you wanted to see at how old school logos were displayed, you would notice that there were bright, complex and colorful logos, displayed against a gradient or a solid background. This was mostly because they looked too busy for anything more complex.

However, nowadays we have monotone logos, which are dead simple, and when you put them on top of a good photograph, they look stunning. If you want your shop’s logos to look even better, you should definitely give this a try.

Line art

Current design trends severely change the way in which we create vintage graphics.

Back when skeuomorphism was something to follow, you would see heavy textures such as rust, leather or paper, as well as ink brushes.

Nowadays, flat design is taking over, and retro logos often go for simplified illustrations and thin lines.

Be yourself when designing a vintage logo

The design community both drops and latches onto certain ideas, in tandem, and this is somewhat fascinating for a lot of people.

If your clients prefer a trendy, popular design, you can use other ideas as an inspiration for your own vintage logo design.

Or, if you want to create your own path, you can go ahead, you already know what has been done already.

How to create a retro logo

Rendering is a very powerful skill – it helps designers convey their ideas, feelings or moods to their clients.

The style of vintage faded logos is easily explored in the tutorial below. You should note, though, before beginning, that rendering is actually an art form in itself.

The steps of the tutorial below aren’t to be explicitly followed, but you could use them as an introduction to the rendering process.

This process consists of a lot of trial and error, as well as experimenting with a design until you think it’s successful.

If you want to achieve individuality and creativity, you should keep this process at least slightly different.

There is a thing to be noted, though.

Rendering is very helpful to morally sound designers, but there are people who may resort to abusing it in order to impress a client with a weak design.

This is an abuse that is discouraged pretty strongly, in order to fill the world with strong designs.

Start with a vector design

Having a strong vector design to begin with is a pretty important thing.

Oftentimes, that vector design is everything that the client actually uses in their process.

As a designer, you should know that only when you have strong vector art, can you move to rendering. Since this is usually done in Illustrator, here are a few things to do, and why.

• Effect > Stylize > Round Corners. This lessens the digital corners that don’t really exist in the vintage aesthetic you’re aiming for.
• Effect > Distort & Transform > Roughen: Rough edges are easier to achieve in Illustrator, and they help towards “aging” the design.
• If you want to beat up the design in some way, you can always pull in random anchor points.

Rendering in Photoshop

Now that you’re done with illustrator, get the logo in Photoshop. The background, logo and textures have layers, and organization for them is pretty important, since projects often become pretty layered.

You can choose your texture and copy it to the clipboard. Which texture you choose is completely up to you. There is no right way, and these things are often based on feeling and instinct, which also adds a touch of personality to the design.

You can go ahead and play with the design in Photoshop as much as you want. As said earlier, there is no tutorial to doing things “right”, and therefore, this results in a pretty personal design that fits your design style and aesthetic.

Wrapping things up

Opting for a vintage logo design, and including vintage logo elements in your web design is an interesting way of bringing back your past memories.

When you purposely develop a vintage design, and you incorporate new technology and services, you get the true retro effect.

If you liked this article about vintage logo designs, you should check out these as well:

• Tips On How To Design A Great Logo
• Letterhead Examples and Ideas: 60+ Cool Stationary Designs
• Restaurant Logo Designs: Tips, Best Practices, and Inspiration
• Logos on Pinterest

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