The Retrovert - Vintage Graphics - All that's old and fit to print
The Retrovert - looking back at vintage graphics

And what, you may ask, is a Retrovert, anyway?

We look at it like this. It's possible that you're an introvert. It's possible that you're an extrovert. But if you've stayed on this page this long we're pretty sure that you're a Retrovert. There's a little place inside you that's looking neither in nor out, but back.

And that's why we think you're here.

WPA poster art design

Here at the Retrovert you'll find a large collection of vintage graphics that have been carefully restored and applied to new products like t-shirts, posters, greeting cards, postcards, and coffee mugs.

It's a joy to keep these designs alive. Some are breathtaking, especially the bold graphic works of some of the WPA artists, and some are a bit amusing from the vantage of our 21st century seats. The propaganda posters can take on whole new meanings, eighty years later. But we're not here to mock what looks dated and retro today; you need to view this, as you would any survivor, in the context of its time and place.

The art of the 1939 New York Worlds Fair
The art we throw away

The art you see here was never meant to last: the paper goods, the posters, and the advertisements we've restored for you were meant to be thrown away. They're what antique dealers call ephemera, which means exactly that: things that aren't meant to endure.

But because these examples have endured we can still enjoy them - enjoy them again, rather - as evidence that even when we make disposable things we may put all of our craft and all of our love into them.

These unlikely survivals are a record of what design used to be. They're one part what we've built on, and one part what we've lost.

... and the art we pick up again

But we haven't really lost it: these temporary things have, now and then, survived, and been rediscovered, retouched, and made new again... and now you can have them.

Whether it's your very own reproduction of a WPA poster, or a magazine cover, travel poster, or the cover sheet for music from the 1920's and 1930's, you can have one to wear, or to hang, or to sip your coffee from. And that's why we are here.