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What if one of the best examples of retro-futurism wasn't a brand, but an album concept?
Whenever I think about this aesthetic, I always come back to my queen 🥰 Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia.
She did her investigation, as an art and architecture lover she made an album in which she imagined the future through the lens of the past. Chrome finishes, rounded typography, retro cars, optimistic color palettes, postmodern architecture, and cinematic visuals all came together to build one iconic and consistent universe.
Future Nostalgia reminds me that a strong identity is really about consistency across every adaptation.
I'm curious...
Is there another album or artist whose visual world feels just as cohesive from a branding perspective?
These are fun, I think to me this feels more like Nu-Disco maybe some Italo/pop , which are both definitely in the retro space in terms of artistic direction, I say this without having heard dua lipa's music, just speaking on the visual sense. If you are familiar with Chromeo, I...
Wow! I had no idea about the Incredibles, that's such a good analysis
And to answer your question about music artists with strong visual concepts, I can think of quite a few, not necessarily in the futureretro space, but incredible unique art direction. Let's start with Kavinsky , his unique sound and his graphic persona come alive on every album,...
That's so cool! I Absolutely love the artwork from Tycho, they have a very defined visual system
The GTA Vice City aesthetic! So cool.
Hahahah that's one way to say it! Exactly
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Can a rebrand be successful if most people don't even notice it?
That's exactly what Coca-Cola just proved with JKR
You don't redesign one of the most iconic brands in the world. You amplify what already makes it iconic and make it recognizable from Japan to Argentina.
The logo isn't the story but the rest of the assets are: the ribbon, typography, Arden Square, color system, and every recognizable asset now work together as a stronger, more scalable identity
Do you prefer bold reinventions, or subtle evolutions like this one?
Anita I really like this style 😍
love this style
For the Contra x Envato Challenge, 'Human by Design', we built a brand identity and animated a promo video for 'Olo', an accessible crypto-trading platform.
To us, the core of this challenge wasn't about creating more content with AI, but about maintaining one clear creative direction. When drawing from a massive library of separate AI generations, stock footage, fonts, and music, a project can easily turn into a disjointed visual mess. Envato served as our entire toolkit - from AI-generated audio and assets to stock templates and typography.
But every asset still had to answer one crucial question: 'Does this truly feel like Olo'? Guided by the brand promise of making crypto trading accessible for everyone, everywhere, human instinct drove the entire creative process:
1. Curating over generating: Rejecting raw AI outputs that felt flat or out of context and ruthlessly filtering for what actually worked.
2. Building a visual identity: Applying custom effects to transform generic stock footage into a unified aesthetic.
3. Directing the flow: Motion design, precise typography, and timing every single movement to the rhythm of the music in After Effects. Envato Stock and AI tools dramatically accelerate the build process, but it’s the human creator who infuses the soul. It provides the ingredients, but art direction, taste, and instinct define the quality of the final result.
Toolkit: Envato (Envato AI, Stock, Fonts, Audio) + After Effects & Adobe Illustrator.
Brand DesignCreative Design Motion DesignAdobe After EffectsEnvatoenvatochallengeaftereffectsbranding
Nice🔥