Retro Branding
Speculative / Self-initiated · Identity, art direction, design
Overview
What if some of the biggest and most iconic faith and values based organizations had been founded in the 20th century?
This project explores what the branding would look like if these organizations were formed at various points between 1940 and 1990.
In addition to designing a period specific logo use cases were also designed to show how the logos would be used in practice.
This is a self-initiated design project created for exploration and practice, not commissioned by the organizations featured.
PragerU
1940s/1980s
1940s: A seal-inspired identity built around an oversized “U,” circular framing, engraved linework, and a banner treatment. It draws from university emblems, civic organizations, and institutional branding of the mid-century period. Presented as the identity for an educational film, where the logo functions like the seal of the sponsoring organization. The black-and-white theater setting helps place it naturally within the era.
1980s: A high-contrast serif wordmark paired with a bold, geometric “U” gives the identity a distinctly 1980s editorial and technology feel. The contrast between the refined serif and blocky letterform creates a more period-specific personality than the current mark. Applied to educational video packaging, imagining PragerU content distributed as physical home or classroom media in the form of a LaserDisc. The square format, bold type, and blue-and-orange palette fit the look of 1980s educational products.
Live Action
1960s/1980s
1960s: Chunky, irregular slab lettering and a subtle, simplified, abstract baby figure in the “i” give the logo a friendly, handmade quality. The turquoise, pink, and black palette reinforces the feel of mid-century family and public-information graphics. Designed for a simple informational pamphlet, one of the most common formats for advocacy and educational material of the era. The family photography, limited color, and straightforward layout help the piece feel appropriately period-specific.
1980s: A high-contrast serif wordmark gives the identity a more polished, editorial tone, while the overlapping profiles create a simple human-focused symbol. The restrained blue-and-pink palette feels consistent with 1980s nonprofit and magazine branding. Used in a full-page magazine advertisement built around family photography and long-form copy. The logo acts as the sponsor signature rather than the dominant visual element, matching the structure of many print ads from the period.
Turning Point USA
1950s/1990s
1950s: A Googie-inspired badge built around an angular boomerang shape meant to not-so subtlely point up and to the right. The color palette reinforces the mid-century civic and promotional feel while keeping the patriotic connection understated. Applied to a printed membership card, the identity feels like a youth-oriented political organization of the period.
1990s: Bold condensed lettering, a sweeping red oval, and an oversized star give the identity the energetic, forward-moving character of 1990s political branding that dominated campaigns and movements up until Barack Obama’s logo changed that reigning paradigm in 2008. The red-white-and-blue palette was an obvious choice for most political campaigns at that time, and the italic typography gives the mark a younger, more promotional feel. In a time before large LED screens provided the backdrop for events this logo would have been shown on a large conference banner for conventions and youth-organization environments of that era.
The Babylon Bee
1930s/1970s
1930s: A blackletter nameplate in the tradition of the great American dailies, but with a deliberate exaggeration. The engraved hatching in the masthead is more at home on period sans serifs. Here it is layered onto Old English lettering that 1930s papers kept solid. The result tries a little too hard to look like a paper of record, which suits a publication whose news isn’t real. The dense, hatched letterforms are also harder to read at a glance, so the eye lands on the bee first: a rubber hose–style reporter with a press card in his hatband, a notepad, and a knowing wink, the kind of newspaper mascot that sold papers before anyone called it branding. The straightforward Franklin Gothic tagline keeps the joke deadpan. Applied to the front page of October 31, 1938, the morning after The War of the Worlds broadcast, the masthead sits on a newsstand stack among headlines satirizing the political events of the day, which also include mocking the Soviet purges, Chamberlain’s “peace in our time”, and the “alphabet soup” of FDR’s New Deal programs.
1970s: Inspired by the cut-and-paste zines that spread with cheap photocopiers and the punk movement in the late ’70s. Everything looks as though it is run through a photocopier. Zines were where satire and counterculture lived, so it’s easy to imagine this one sitting in a record-store rack alongside punk fanzines in the most subversive way possible, as conservative ideology wouldn’t be welcome in that space, but dressed up at rebellion against power in punk’s visual language make it more feasible. Set in December 1979, it takes on the Carter administration during the energy crisis, and on the eve of his reelection campaign.
Daily Wire
1940s/1980s
1940s: The tall oval form and compressed lettering were designed to evoke a vintage broadcast microphone. Concentric horizontal lines suggest both microphone grilles and radio transmission, while “Always on the Air” reinforces a melding of the broadcast concept while tipping a hat to the what the Daily Wire actually is as a podcast platform. Applied directly to a microphone in a 1940s-style radio studio. Because the logo’s shape was designed around the object itself, it feels more like an authentic station badge than a modern logo placed into a vintage setting.
1980s: Bold condensed lettering, a boxed “DW” monogram, and horizontal scan lines give the identity a strong 1980s television-broadcast character. The red, white, and black palette adds to the feel of period station graphics and on-screen branding. Shown as a television ident displayed on a CRT screen. The scan-line motif becomes especially appropriate in this context, making the identity feel designed specifically for electronic broadcast media.