(Not my personal aesthetic of normcore, by the way, but one of my favorites.)
Influences:
Dieselpunk, Dark Academia, Steel punk, Urbancore, and Cassette Punk, and especially 1970s Western European, American, Australian, Filipino, and Japanese architecture, art, transportation, political history, and pop culture
Main Colors and Patterns:
Black, cream, white, dark brown, sepia, maroon, plum, olive green, mustard, orange, dark teal, muted colors in stripes and lines or paisley
Main Fashions:
Double-breasted three-piece suits with shirts and ties in those colors, tweed blazers and bow ties, drab pencil skirts and trousers, clunky glasses
Main Typefaces:
original Helvetica, Eurostile, News Gothic
Description of Motifs:
An aesthetic acting as the bridge between Modernism and Postmodernism. Moody atmosphere overall. Characterized by deep-seated skepticism of corrupt government and corporations, glorification of investigative journalism or other actions that involve massive amounts of paperwork in the course of uncovering conspiracies, and particularly an ambivalent view of gritty, grimy city life and modernity (especially middle-class office life) with an undercurrent of paranoia.
Key Technologies and Architectural Styles:
Teletext, Later Electric Typewriters, Mimeographs, Early Microcomputers, Early Photocopiers, Early Subcompact Cars, Concorde and the 747, Shinkansen, Metroliner, TGV and the Advanced Passenger Train, Hovercraft, International Style and Brutalist architecture
Some Seminal Events and Programs:
The Apollo and Skylab programs, the formation of the EPA, USPS, Amtrak, NPR and PBS, OSHA, and especially the Federal Design Improvement Program, Expo ‘70 (known for its prominent architecture focused on triangles, rectangles, and strategic use of color), Watergate, the Wilson premiership, the Marcos presidency, and various other political upheavals of the decade
Films for Good Reference:
Playtime (1967), Saul Bass’ film pitching the new Bell System logo (1969), The French Connection (1970), Shaft (1971), Klute (1971), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Trafic (1971), Get Carter (1971), The Candidate (1972), The Man (1972), Soylent Green (1973), Super Fly (1972), Death Wish (1974), The Parallax View (1974), Dolemite (1975), Three Days of the Condor (1975), Taxi Driver (1976), Marathon Man (1976), All the President’s Men (1976), Network (1976), The China Syndrome (1979), The Post (2017)
Television Shows for Good Reference:
Hawaii Five-O, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Seasons 1-10 of Sesame Street, Curiosity Show, Taxi, The Rockford Files, The Brady Bunch, All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, Supertrain, Seasons 1-5 of Saturday Night Live, Seasons 7-18 of Doctor Who, Season 1 of The Eric Andre Show, Season 1 of The Americans, and any police procedural, musical variety or game show from that decade
Music for Good Reference:
Soundtracks of the above, any acid jazz, jazz rock, electronic, or funk music with strong influence from double bass, bass guitars, early synthesizers, electric piano, or saxophone (Wendy Carlos, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Roy Budd, Billy Preston, Stevie Wonder, Bob James, Miles Davis, and even Vulfpeck are particularly notable), Pub Rock and Early New Wave (Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Bruce Woolley, and Dire Straits are good examples), and works by Tom Waits, John Prine, Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, Helen Reddy, Paul Simon, Eagles, Carpenters, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, The Jacksons, and Nick Drake from that decade
