Inspiration from Vintage Ads

abduzeedo - 01/17/2008

A few days ago I was working on a project that needed some Vintage Images, like old ads. I decided to look for them on the web, more precisely at Flickr.com. After like 5 hours I had found so many images that I had to stop or else I would spend the rest of my life viewing them.

In this post I will share some of these amazing ads I found, so if you want to create a Vintage design it’s a good start with some crazy old ads.

World War II (1942 - 1945)

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess/browse/war/

Television (1939 - 1957)

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess/browse/television/

Beauty and Hygiene (1911 - 1956)

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess/browse/beauty/

Vespa


Misc

Some Links

http://flickr.com/photos/chicagoeye/sets/226503/ http://flickr.com/photos/krizsa/sets/72157600192790608/ http://flickr.com/photos/jbcurio/sets/72057594111613034/ http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess/browse/ http://flickr.com/photos/jikan/sets/72157601508315141/?page=2 http://flickr.com/photos/jikan/sets/72157594314179905/

About author

User picture

My name is Fabio Sasso, I'm a graphic/web designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil and I'm the founder of Abduzeedo. I hope we can share lots of information, tips, and ideas through abduzeedo.

Sponsored Links:

Your site is perfectly. Great work, I liked. Always, there is many interesting. I'll come to you once again.

To whom interesting forex market, recommend:
forex trading broker

online forex trading's picture
online forex trading (not verified) 10/06/2008

this is sweet. I'm doing an independent study for desktop publishing and I'm studying the way desing is used. Who doesnt love vintage...nice post.

samantha 's picture
samantha (not verified) 09/08/2008

Your site is great and I really appreciate it! I have always enjoyed reading your site.

Online casino gambling's picture
Online casino gambling (not verified) 09/03/2008

WOW!

Interesting collection! Very inspiring!

Thanks

psp games's picture
psp games (not verified) 08/20/2008

Visible Value - U can see the difference!
Love that one.

2flux's picture
2flux (not verified) 06/28/2008

Love those old ads. Those War Bonds seem light years away from where we are now but what with oil and fuel/gas 'shortages' - what next... rationing cards?

SEO Consultancy's picture
SEO Consultancy (not verified) 06/13/2008

Great tutorial as usually

website design's picture
website design (not verified) 05/05/2008

I love these old ads. I actually just started using an old Gillette safety razor .

Stanko's picture
Stanko (not verified) 04/16/2008

Some really nice images, looks like many of them are advertising vespa moterbikes, Whats the score for using such images and enlarging to put into a picture frame for the office, I guess all copyrighted (shame)

Regards Dave seo consultant

Seo Consultant's picture
Seo Consultant (not verified) 04/13/2008

Yes very pretty vintage.

Gav's picture
Gav (not verified) 04/09/2008

where could one get a good tutorial on how to successfully achieve this style with Photoshop? any links?

Anonymous (not verified) 03/21/2008

Great ads. I collect and sell them and you have some awesome wartime ads that I've never seen.

I have noticed an increase in the retro decorating concept. More and more people are really (finally) appreciating the workmanship that went into these classic ads. Even though almost anything can be created with computer graphics, there is still nothing like these great ads.

Thanks for sharing your findings. I think I'll take a look at your links.

Chas's picture
Chas (not verified) 03/16/2008

Very nice vintage ADS, we are a web design company and have been asked from several clients to produce websites with a vintage feel, fortunately we have been able to look in the archives of our local library and find plenty of local vintage images, getting back to the images you have collected I wonder what the copyright allows you to use for web work
Regards Dave, WDS, UK

Web Design Sussex's picture
Web Design Sussex (not verified) 03/16/2008

thank you alot ;)

Computer jobs (not verified) 03/16/2008

These ads are really crazy. They make me laught.

Web designer's picture
Web designer (not verified) 03/06/2008

hey your idea for taking the old adds is good
but shouldnt we always be going for something original??

earn money online's picture
earn money online (not verified) 03/02/2008

hey nice work
you write very well
keep writing:)

penny stocks list  's picture
penny stocks list (not verified) 02/25/2008

very nice!
good jobs.

outwindow's picture
outwindow (not verified) 01/31/2008

Wow, those are great vintage images!

Julie's picture
Julie (not verified) 01/29/2008

"Television with built in radio at no extra cost!" Great stuff :D

Flooring Jim's picture
Flooring Jim (not verified) 01/29/2008

Great stuff!

Hard to believe they could pull some of that off back then. Nowadays the line probably would be something like "Blow it in her face and she will slap your face and lawsuit your ass"

486dx2's picture
486dx2 (not verified) 01/27/2008

Great collection! I love the one with the Grandmother stealing cigarettes. I find the understated style of retro ads refreshing, not overly polished and glossed like ads nowadays. Thanks for sharing. :)

Ingrid's picture
Ingrid (not verified) 01/25/2008

WOW! Really Great Staff, never seen these Poster for a very very long long time, As in Asian country like Thailand that's not easy to be seen.

songchai's picture
songchai (not verified) 01/24/2008

great fun!

Jermayn Parker's picture
Jermayn Parker (not verified) 01/24/2008

I just loved it!!!
Great marketing history visualization.
Thanx.

Neri (not verified) 01/23/2008

thanks for the links!
it's good that people are still holding onto the retro

Scarlett (not verified) 01/22/2008

absolute bull shit!

Anonymous (not verified) 01/20/2008

just wanted to do the math problem. ;)

Anonymous (not verified) 01/18/2008

see... smoking is cool.and good for digestion!!!

Anonymous (not verified) 01/18/2008

"The one that says: "Blow in her face..." is disgusting."

Wrong, the Blow in her face one is absolute genius, though you probably don't get it. Think about it.

Anonymous (not verified) 01/18/2008

I ment "the war ones"

pmc27's picture
pmc27 (not verified) 01/17/2008

The one that says: "Blow in her face..." is disgusting.
The one that says: "Pink is for girls" is like it would be made today in retro style.
And the wer ones... sad.

pmc27's picture
pmc27 (not verified) 01/17/2008

oh man, that last one is just freakish. Baby razors!!!

paulo's picture
paulo 01/17/2008

oh man, that one is just freakish. Baby razors!!!

paulo's picture
paulo 01/17/2008

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
If you have a Gravatar account, used to display your avatar.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.