Modern Retro
100 of the world's most recognisable brands, reimagined as 1970s high street stores that never existed. The logos, the shopfronts, the whole world rebuilt for a decade that predates them by 50 years.
The idea
"If Spotify had a record shop on the high street in 1976, what would it look like?"
That was the question. Hand-painted lettering. Warm bulb lighting. A window display of featured records. Nothing digital. Nothing global. Just a local shop with a logo that would not exist for another 30 years.
That image was too good not to make real. So we made one. Then another. Then another. A hundred brands later, we have a high street that time never built: one that feels, somehow, like it should have existed.
The concept works because great brands have always had timeless values. Nike was always about performance. Apple was always about design. Lego was always about imagination. Strip away the digital layer and what remains is the soul of the brand, which translates perfectly to a 1970s shopfront.
The collection












The high street
Every brand in the collection. Move your cursor over any name.
The films
Each store has its own film: short loops of the shopfront, lit as it would have been on a quiet Tuesday morning in 1976.
How it's made
The distinction matters. The AI generates the image. The brief determines whether it is any good.
Every store starts with a detailed prompt specifying era, neighbourhood character, lighting quality, signage style, window display, and the specific visual language of the brand being translated. A Balenciaga brief looks nothing like a Lego brief.
The AI produces multiple candidates per brand. Most are rejected. The ones that pass feel genuinely of their time: not costumed or nostalgic, but as if someone caught the shop on a grey morning in 1976 and never thought to tell anyone.
The best image becomes the store. The video is generated from the still. Both go through one final check: does this feel real? Would you walk past it without noticing? The ones that pass that test make the collection.
From Anthropic to YouTube
A decade before most of them existed
Every store has its own short film
Every one is entirely fictional
The creator
Mike is a product builder and former ad agency strategist based in London. Modern Retro is one of 20+ AI-native projects he has built and shipped since 2025.
The idea came from a single question about Spotify. The obsession came from discovering how well the concept worked: a great brand, stripped of its digital context, still reads as a great brand. That felt worth exploring at scale.
For press enquiries, brand commissions, or print orders, one address covers everything.
All 100 stores, laid out as they would appear on the high street. Filter by brand, category, or era.
Enter the galleryMuseum-quality giclée prints of any store in the collection. Ready to frame.
Visit the print shopEnter any brand name and see what its 1970s high street store would have looked like.
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