Everyday Apps Reimagined As Products From The 20th Century

Thomas Ollivier isn’t like some designers – he was born in the 20th century. There are so many products from that time, that inspired the products of this time, but Thomas has made the correlation even more direct.

Using decades-old products as an inspiration, the French designer rebranded the ancient gadgets with apps and programs we use today. Dubbed Re:Birth, the project should be near and dear to those born waaaaaaaaaay back before the year 2000.

There’s the high-tech Netflix View-Master you can use to stream over a million movie and TV reels. You can call over your friends to watch them using your What’s App Walkie-Talkie and document the entire hangout using an Instagram Disposable Camera (complete with vintage filters).

Before posting them in your family album, you can doctor the pictures using the Adobe Illustrator Etch-A-Sketch or through the Snapchat Selfie Machine while listening to some old school tunes on your Spotify Walkman.

Once the photos are finished, you can make use of the Google Speak & Spell to properly label the album before contacting your friends using a Facebook Pager (because what other mobile device would you use to keep in touch) to tell your friends and family to come over and view the album with you.

Or you could just use the apps on your phone/computer to do all the work. But where’s the fun in that?

Sadly, these are only concept designs, as the cost of producing the gadgets (and the hilarious level of impracticality) would be more than it’s all worth. It is interesting to think how those products inspired our current apps though and what the current apps may inspire in the future. All these vintage redesigns and more can be found on Thomas Ollivier’s webpage.