As you all know, I'm pretty excited for the D23 Expo. In my downtime I have dreamed about the launch of the Retro '71 apparel line, and what better platform to roll out the announcement of the t-shirts hitting the Vacation Kingdom than at the Expo itself? But first, what apparel line can be complete without a logo? It took me some time to come up with the logo for Retro '71, simply because I couldn't find the right typeface that spoke to me. After many versions I've finally nailed one down that I feel says, "nostalgic vacation wear with a vintage flair". The logo would be present on the labels and tags for the product line. Within the style guide I've created a simple one-color logo, the care and content label that would be printed inside the shirts instead of on a scratchy tag, and lastly, the garment hang tag.
I see fans getting their first taste of the line with actual printed garments at the Expo, and I've been working on designing a simple but effective booth where guests can see the shirts up close, feel the vintage eco-friendly fabrics and maybe even get some free swag for stopping by.
The booth would consist of a simple wall that would be fashioned out of that horrible 70's paneling that most would stick their noses up at today. It's tacky, funny, kitschy and most of all, retro. The wall would have a large white protruding sign/frame that is made up by the original “D” from the classic Walt Disney World Resort logo, along with the Retro '71 logo. The inset area of the sign is made up of an oversized graphic of various vacation postcards from the past.
At the far end of the booth, we would have the apparel line where guests could get a sneak peak of the first wave of shirts to hit the Walt Disney World Resort. Located in front of the shirts would be two cantilever product tables that will showcase some of the other consumer products that we will also roll out alongside some of your favorite Retro '71 shirt designs. Flanking each side of the entire wall would be our mannequins that will be of course sport some of the shirts, along with other vintage vacation apparel found from thrift stores to really set the tone of what we used to wear when visiting the parks. Lastly, the entire booth will be carpeted with a mod-patterned, high traffic rug modeled after one of the original carpet designs found in the Contemporary Resort.
We wouldn't turn you away empty-handed—for stopping by, guests would receive a free Retro '71 UV sun visor modeled after the visors sold in the parks back in the late 70's and early 80's.
What do you guys think? Would you be excited? Would you stop by our booth, and lastly, would you sport that wicked visor?
