When you see the word “nostalgia,” what are some of the first things that come to mind? It depends on the generation you were born into, we suppose, but for many of us, midcentury design elements are among the first mental images that pop up. Things like Early American-style ranch homes with wood paneling and plaid or gingham curtains. Streamline furniture in a color that is both hideous and oddly beautiful. Pastel bathrooms with pink sinks and tubs – because once upon a time not so long ago, that was a thing.
And perhaps the strangest image of all: Jell-O molds. Jell-O molds in all shapes and sizes, filled with unexpected fruit medleys and the occasional meat because… well, it was a very different time. Nothing says “welcome to the 50s” quite like a lime-flavored Jell-O mold loaded with pineapple and tuna.
In spite of such questionable food choices, midcentury things make us happy. They remind us of a “simpler” time, one that we look back and think fondly upon. They’re familiar and they’re comfortable, and they’re the focal point of Retro Supply Co.
When it comes to graphic design and illustration, Retro Supply Co. is one of the best sources of design assets you’ll find anywhere. Established by Dustin Lee, the studio provides a ton of brushes, layer styles, fonts, print effects, and textures for crafting realistic midcentury effects in Photoshop and Illustrator.
The reason why Retro Supply Co.’s products are so good is because they’re made from real objects. Dustin has used wood, ink, and paper, 60-year old wax oil crayons, foil, garage grime, and even coffee and oil spills to create realistic textures and effects.
All of this came about during an extended stay at his grandmother’s place, a haven of old stuff just begging to be explored. Product packages, comic books, hardware boxes, magazines and more were the things he remembered from his youth and he went on a mission to figure how to replicate their aged effects digitally. Over time, he built an entire online warehouse of design assets that make it easy for graphic designers to achieve realistic midcentury effects in a fraction of the time it would take to create them from scratch.
One of his more recent releases through YouWorkForThem is Gouache Shader Brushes for Adobe Illustrator, a megapack of brushes designed to be used with Adobe Illustrator CS4 and above. This brush collection was designed to make textured shading a breeze in digital illustrations and graphic designs.
Instead of potentially spending hours trying to search for textures, or trying to add various filter effects to mimic said textures, Gouache Shader Brushes for Adobe Illustrator make it easy to apply richly textured shading effects in minutes. These are perfect for everything from book illustrations to posters, album art, website graphics, apparel designs, infographics, logos, and product packaging illustrations. And because these are vector brushes, they’re ideal for any project that needs to have scalability.
Gouache Shader Brushes for Adobe Illustrator includes 12 liner brushes to add texture to the edges of objects, 12 edge shader brushes that enable designers to apply textures to edges without needing to mask, 12 360º shader brushes with full masking ability, 12 high contrast 360º shader brushes with more intense textures, and 12 high contrast shader edge brushes for more intense textures along the edge of an object. And if you’re feeling at all lost or overwhelmed, Gouache Shader Brushes includes easy-to-follow instructions to point you in the right direction.
Retro Supply Co. currently offers more than 100 amazing products through YouWorkForThem and the list only continues to grow as time goes on. Their portfolio is positively packed with some of the most incredible products you’ll find for midcentury texturing and effects so if you dig those design styles, bookmark it so you won’t miss out on any of their releases in the future!
