Retrofuturism: 8 Design Innovations To Take You Back to the Future
Photo: Courtesy of Image3D.Image3D Custom Slide Reel And Viewer
The Fisher Price View-Master is pretty much an icon of our childhoods; that unmistakable chunky red plastic device transported us to a fantasy world by enveloping our 120-degree vision span in various Disney scenes and comic-book panels. Did your 6-year-old self ever imagine she could be the subject in these spellbinding slides? Image3D offers the plastic viewing device plus a service to build custom slide reels containing your seven favorite digital photos for $29.95.
Photo: Courtesy of Kickstarter.Lomo’Instant Camera
Before there was Instagram, there were instant-film cameras. Lomography, the company that’s brought you all sorts of affordable, artistic twists on 35mm film cameras, is crowdfunding a new instant-film camera to bring you Instagram-style filtered photos IRL. The camera uses widely available Fuji Instax Mini film and offers color filters, fisheye lenses, and the ability to shoot in manual mode to control depth-of-field and shutter speed. A pledge of $69 or more to Lomo’s Kickstarter gets you the earliest edition of the camera, which has an estimated delivery date of November 2014.
Photo: Courtesy of Polaroid.Polaroid Socialmatic Camera
Remember taking Polaroids with your friends and fighting over who would keep the lone image? Polaroid, whose early-’80s OneStep Land Camera inspired Instagram’s app icon, will bring its Socialmatic instant camera to the market in fall 2014. The slim-line, square device marries old and new photo-sharing technology in a totally rad way — the camera uses Polaroid’s ZINK® Zero Ink® film, and each camera comes with a unique QR code to brand your photos and help gain new followers. Like your favorite smartphone, the Socialmatic comes with both front- and rear-facing cameras, in 14- and two-megapixel resolutions, respectively. The 4.5-inch touchscreen LCD display runs on Android OS and has built-in wifi, so you can share your snaps to social media in an instant — no more arguing about whose mirror the pic will be tacked to.
Photo: Courtesy of Etsy.Steampunk Accessories
Steampunk is arguably the purest expression of retrofuturism in today’s culture. It’s a fashion and a lifestyle that combines Victorian-era clothes like corsets, hoop-skirts, and men’s formalwear with Mad Max post-apocalypse, sci-fi influenced technology that is part retro, part cutting-edge, and totally DIY. For example, we once saw steampunk writer Thomas Willeford control a PowerPoint presentation with his customized navigator’s typewriter-key wrist guard. If corsets and soldering aren’t your thing, accessories are a great way to participate in this fun, funky style. We recommend cruising Etsy for pendants made from old watches, typewriter keys repurposed as rings and more.
Photo: Courtesy of Evernote.Evernote Notebooks by Moleskine
The Tron Lambo
1982’s Tron and its 2010 sequel imagined high-speed action in a virtual world in which light cycles created mesmerizing trails of neon. Supercar enthusiast Nasser Al-Thani decided to bring Tron’s light show off the grid and into reality. This half-million dollar Lamborghini Aventador was modded by the billionaire and member of Qatar’s ruling family. After making quite a scene in London, the drool-worthy custom ride was spotted during this year’s Cannes Film Festival. If neon-orange and purple aren’t your thing, perhaps the matte-black Aventador will win your heart on the big screen in another sci-fi reboot, Transformers: Age Of Extinction.
Reading Rainbow
Photo: Courtesy of Stop Staring Clothing.Stop Staring!’s Rockabilly Fashion
This post was authored by Katie DeRogatis.