What if Notion Existed in the 1970s?

Imagine walking down a busy high street in 1974. Between the record shops and the laundrettes, you spot something unexpected: a stationery shop called Notion. It shouldn't exist — not for another few decades — but here it is, fitting in perfectly among the brown brick and hand-painted signage of the era.

A planner for every kind of brain and a notebook for every kind of dream. Cork boards pinned with to-do lists lined the walls while typewriters clacked in the corner. The shopkeeper could recommend the perfect organiser for any personality, and the smell of fresh paper made every visit feel like a fresh start.

The Details That Sell the Illusion

Every Modern Retro storefront is built from the visual language of the 1970s — warm tungsten lighting, Kodachrome film tones, wood panelling, and period typography. Here's what makes the Notion store feel authentic:

• Shelves overflowing with colourful notebooks and planners
• Cork boards covered in pinned notes and lists
• Typewriters on display tables
• Rubber stamps and coloured pens in glass jars
• Fairy lights strung along the shelves

The Absurdity Factor

Part of the charm of Modern Retro is the contrast between what a brand does today and what it would have been in the 70s. Notion as a stationery shop is perfectly natural — the kind of shop you'd walk past without a second glance, never knowing that decades later it would become something entirely different.

That tension between the familiar and the impossible is what makes these images work. They're not parodies — they're love letters to an era when everything was a bit more tactile, a bit more human, and a lot more orange.