1980s Graphic Design: Pic Fix

A 1980s Deco-style poster from French artist Razzia; Image courtesy of Posters Please Inc.

This week Mirror80 celebrates the bold world of ’80s graphic design, examining its styles through the posters, stickers, album covers, and yes, Trapper Keepers of the 1980s! In this decade of excess, designers sought to grab the audience’s attention with a variety of eye-catching images and fonts.

Take the poster above by French artist Razzia. Though it features a 1927 date, the piece is from the ’80s, clearly a part of the Art Deco revival known as ’80s Deco. From the clean sans-serif font to the artwork’s angles and curves, this poster evokes another time, but with a touch of glitz to remind us that the time is in fact the 1980s! A special thank-you to Posters Please, who provided us with the image of this amazing poster, and whose eBay store features an abundant selection of poster art, including many 1980s pieces!

An early '80s clown sticker designed by Lisa Frank; Image courtesy of Esty shop VintageStickerLove

Next we turn our eyes to a whimsical abstract clown sticker designed by pop artist Lisa Frank, whose vivid, colorful designs appeared on many a 1980s school supply and sticker. We’d like to thank Etsy shop VintageStickerLove for the use of the sticker pic (shown to the left). Be sure to check out the shop’s extensive assortment of 1980s stickers, from puffies to prisms and everything in between.

The clown sticker is a great example of the abstract and fantasy-based designs that took center stage in the ’80s. Think ballet slippers, piano keys, flowing ribbons, unicorns, clowns with ruffled collars, and windows that opened to reveal a cloud-filled sky.

We give you one more sneak peek with the ribbon-and zig-zag-covered Trapper Keeper shown below. Designed by Mead, these loose-leaf binders were all the rage from the ’70s through the ’90s, and they hold some of the best examples of ’80s graphic design!

A big thank you to eBay seller blvdartist for the use of the photo below–be sure to check out the store’s great vintage offerings. We couldn’t imagine our blog post without this 1985 Designer Series Trapper Keeper, which combines abstract design with a bit of fantasy (thanks to the curlicue ribbons) and that shiny, festive style we at Mirror80 like to call ’80s Cute.