Trying Out Some Old School Vibes
So, the name Patti McGuire popped up the other day. Don’t ask me how, just one of those things you stumble across when you’re poking around online. Made me think about that whole late 70s, early 80s aesthetic, you know? The look and feel of things back then.
I got this idea, thought I’d try and recreate some of that vibe myself. Just messing around, really. Fired up the computer, opened up some design software I use sometimes. Thought it’d be simple, grab some photos, slap on some filters, maybe find a funky font.
Well, let me tell you, it wasn’t that straightforward. Everything today is so sharp, so clean. Trying to get that slightly fuzzy, warm, almost grainy look that old photos and magazines had? It’s harder than it looks. The tools are all about making things perfect, high-res, you know? I spent a good hour just fiddling with noise layers and blur effects, trying to make it look authentically… well, old.
Found myself getting kinda frustrated. It’s like trying to build a log cabin with laser cutters. The tools aren’t really meant for that rough, analog feel anymore. You can fake it, sure, but it takes effort to make something look imperfect perfectly.
Where Things Got Side-Tracked
This whole thing reminded me of a job I had years back. Not design related, actually. It was this small company, doing… well, doing a bit of everything. We had this old system for tracking inventory. Ancient stuff, probably ran on fumes and good wishes.
Management decided we needed a shiny new system. Bought some off-the-shelf software, promised it would solve everything. Streamline the process, they said. Make everything efficient.
- We spent weeks migrating data.
- Weeks training people who didn’t want to learn.
- Weeks dealing with bugs and features that didn’t quite match how we actually worked.
The old system? It was clunky, yeah. But we knew its quirks. We had workarounds. It did the job, mostly. This new thing? It looked fancy, but it made simple tasks take twice as long. You had to click through six screens to do what used to take one. Everything logged, tracked, standardized… killed any flexibility we had.
It’s funny how trying to recreate an old visual style made me think of that. Sometimes the old ways, the ‘imperfect’ ways, just worked because people adapted to them. Trying to force everything into a perfect, modern box doesn’t always make things better. Sometimes it just makes things… different. And usually more annoying.
Anyway, I eventually gave up on the design thing for the day. Maybe I’ll try again later, or maybe I’ll just appreciate the old stuff for what it was. It’s probably easier that way.
