Whether you’re drawing retro lettering, designing vintage-style illustrations, or just love that timeless mid-century aesthetic, having a solid library of inspiration is essential.
In this post, I’ve rounded up some of my favorite resources for retro inspiration, which I also discuss in my Skillshare class Retro Lettering in Procreate: Master the Art of Midcentury Design. This list includes mostly websites and visual archives, all available for free —which are perfect for artists and designers looking to tap into that classic retro vibe.
1. The letterform archive
A treasure trove of vintage type specimens, advertisements, and design books. Their online archive has gems from the 1940s–60s.
2. My retro tv
Tune into whatever commercial, cartoon, game show and more from the 50s and 60s. Sort by year and category.
3. Posters & prints
A massive online collection with lots of retro inspiration, created by over 3000 members on Flickr. Perfect for finding movie posters, comic books, recipes and more from 1945 to 1965.
→ Mid-century Illustrated on Flickr
4. Pinterest
Pinterest is packed with curated boards full of retro ads, illustrations, patterns, and lettering. Search terms like mid-century graphics, retro packaging, or vintage lettering. This is my Pinterest board with midcentury lettering, cartoons and retro inspired designs I love:
→ My Midcentury Fonts Pinterest Board
4. Cartoon modern
A fantastic, comprehensive bible on all things cartoons in the 50s and 60s, available for free! Reading this book sparked my interest in this topic. And a bit more in this book specifically over at Animation Obsessive: We’ve Made a Rare Animation Artbook Free to All.
→ Cartoon Modern Style And Design In Fifties Animation – Internet Archive
6. Mid-Century Modern Graphic Design and Beyond
A comprehensive report from Creative Market about the history of this movement. It includes great recent resources for creating your own midcentury-inspired art, too.
→ Design Trend: Mid-Century Modern Graphic Design and Beyond
Related article: Retro Lettering Made Easy: 5 Tips to Add a Midcentury Charm to Your Designs
7. Retro ads, cartoons and more
Another gigantic collection of retro inspiration on Flickr. Search by art studio, artist or subject.
→ Mid-Century Collections by leifpeng on Flickr
8. The Mid-Century poster archive
A visual catalogue of Mid-Century Modern graphics on Tumblr, collected by Theo Inglis.
→ Mid-Century Modern Graphic Design on Tumblr
10. Design Annuals & Vintage Books
The People’s Graphic Design Archive is a crowd-sourced virtual archive of inclusive graphic design history. It includes everything from finished projects to process, photos, correspondence, essays, and much more. You can add to the collection yourself, and search through it’s database for inspiration. Search for ‘mid-century’, ’50s’ or ’60s’.
→ People’s Graphic Design Archive – Collections
And that’s it! These are my favorite resources for midcentury inspiration, that I think are perfect for artists and designers that love all things retro.
Ready to learn more? Master the Art of Midcentury Design
In this class, we’re diving into midcentury style to create unique lettering designs, and I’ll teach you my step-by-step process for illustrating midcentury-inspired lettering in Procreate!
This validated my doubts of making not so perfect lettering. Pretty eye opening and a fun class overall. Thanks Claire!
— DAKSHA
