Press Kit

What if every modern brand had opened in 1975?

Modern Retro is a creative project that reimagines 100 of the world's most recognisable brands as 1970s retail stores. Each brand gets its own AI-generated storefront image and a custom cinematic film: a slow dolly through a world that never existed, but somehow feels like it should have.

The project explores what it means for a brand to have a founding mythology: the energy that existed before the product, before the IPO, before the algorithm. Coinbase as a bureau de change. Netflix as a neon-lit video rental. Anthropic as a research institute lobby. The images are immediately legible and slightly uncanny. That is the point.

100
Brands featured
100
Custom AI films
12+
Sectors covered
<$2
Per film to produce
The Story
The Question
Every brand has a mythology that predates its product.
Nike before the Swoosh. Apple before the Mac. Spotify before the algorithm. Modern Retro starts from a single provocation: what if that founding energy had arrived fifty years earlier? What would the shop look like?
The Scale
100 brands, 100 worlds, one consistent visual language.
From Big Tech to DTC startups, from luxury fashion to crypto protocols: every brand in the collection gets the same treatment. Wes Anderson symmetry, 35mm Kodachrome, warm tungsten light. The premise holds because the rules are absolute.
The Films
Then the stores came to life.
100 custom cinematic briefs, written by hand for each brand, generated by Luma AI. A slow dolly through the Anthropic lobby. A push into the Palace skate shop. A pan across Liquid Death's beverage parlour shelves. Each film runs on loop, available to watch at modernretro.art/all-videos.html.
The Implication
AI as a tool for genuine creative authorship, not replacement.
The images that work best took 30-50 iterations to get right. The films required bespoke briefs for each brand. The AI did the rendering; the creative intelligence was human. That distinction matters, and Modern Retro makes it visible.
Lede Options

Three ways to open the story

Ready to use. Lift and edit as needed.

Culture / Nostalgia
There is a specific uncanniness to seeing Liquid Death as a 1970s beverage parlour, or Spotify as a record bar with a handwritten chart on the wall. Modern Retro, a creative project by London-based strategist Mike Litman, has spent months generating bespoke AI images and cinematic films for 100 modern brands. The results are immediately recognisable, slightly wrong, and unexpectedly moving.
Technology / Solo Creator
One person. One AI. One hundred brands, each with a bespoke store image and a custom cinematic film. Modern Retro, built independently by London creative director Mike Litman, is a proof of concept for what creative production looks like in 2026: a project that would have required a studio and years to complete, finished in months using AI tools and a disciplined creative brief.
Data / Investigative
Which modern brands actually belong in 1975, and which ones have always existed in some form? Modern Retro, a creative project that reimagines 100 brands as 1970s retail stores, has built a scoring system to answer that question. Crypto protocols and AI companies score highest. Outdoor brands and sportswear score lowest. The gap between them reveals something real about which companies are genuinely new.
Story Angles

Six ways to tell this story

Culture
The nostalgia hit your FYP never knew it needed
Modern Retro taps into something real: the brands that define life in 2025 feel very new, very frictionless, very screen-based. Seeing them as worn wooden shopfronts with hand-painted signs triggers an uncanny recognition. These are the shops our parents would have visited if the internet had existed in 1975. The images spread because they resolve a tension people feel but can't articulate.
Technology
One person, one AI, 100 films: what creative production looks like now
Modern Retro is a proof of concept for a new kind of creative production. A project that would have required a team of artists, photographers, and film directors working for years was completed by one person using AI tools and a disciplined creative brief. Total cost for 100 custom brand films: $196.10. Under $2 per film. The question is not whether AI replaces creativity: it is what creativity looks like when the tools change.
Design
What a brand looks like before it knew what it was
The most interesting images are the ones where the brand identity survives the translation. Liquid Death is still aggressive, even as a 1970s beverage parlour. Erewhon is still precious, even with a hand-drawn chalk menu. The exercise reveals what is essential in a brand versus what is surface: and that distinction is genuinely useful for anyone who works in marketing or brand strategy.
Business
The solo creator economy just got a film studio
Modern Retro is a functioning creative business built by one person with no studio, no team, and no production budget beyond the cost of AI API calls. It has 100 individual brand pages, a print-on-demand shop, a films archive, and a licensing model for brand partnerships. It is the template for what creative entrepreneurship looks like in the current moment.
Human Interest
The creative director who gave every brand a founding myth
Mike Litman has spent 15+ years working on brand strategy for Nike, Google, Netflix, and Sony. Modern Retro is the project where that career knowledge collided with AI tools he had been exploring independently. The result is a kind of creative research: what does brand mythology actually consist of, and what happens when you stress-test it against a completely different era?
Data / Investigative
Which modern brands translate to 1975? The data is revealing.
Modern Retro uses a proprietary scoring system (the MR Score) to rate brands on "absurdity of existing in the 1970s." The highest-scoring brands: Coinbase, MetaMask, Perplexity, OpenAI. The lowest: Nike, Patagonia, IKEA. The gap between them tells you something about which modern brands are truly new versus which ones are just the latest version of something that has always existed.
Quotes

From the creator

Available for use, attributed to Mike Litman, founder of Modern Retro.

Primary quote
"Every brand has a founding energy that predates the product. I wanted to see what that energy looked like as a shop. The images that work best are the ones where something is slightly off, slightly too perfect, slightly too 1975 to be real. That uncanniness is not a bug. It is the point."
Mike Litman, Creator, Modern Retro
On AI and creative authorship
"I did not use AI to avoid the work. I used it to do work that would have taken a studio of twenty people and three years. Each image took 30 to 50 iterations to get right. The AI rendered; the creative intelligence was mine. That distinction is the whole argument."
Mike Litman, Creator, Modern Retro
On the creative brief
"The rule I set myself: every brand gets the same visual language, but a completely different world. Liquid Death is a 1970s beverage parlour. Anthropic is a research institute lobby. Netflix is a neon video rental. The premise holds because the constraints are absolute."
Mike Litman, Creator, Modern Retro
Data

100 brands by sector

The Modern Retro collection spans 12 sectors. Tech and AI brands score highest on the MR Score (absurdity of existing in 1975). Fashion and outdoor brands score lowest.

Sector Brands Example brands MR Score range
Tech / AI / Software17Anthropic, OpenAI, Midjourney, Perplexity82-96
Fashion / Apparel15Balenciaga, KITH, Off-White, Palace, Supreme44-71
Food / Drink / Wellness14Liquid Death, Oatly, Tony's Chocolonely, Erewhon55-88
Crypto / Web39Coinbase, MetaMask, BAYC, Ledger, OpenSea90-98
Fitness / Health9Peloton, WHOOP, Oura, On Running, Neko Health62-84
Social / Media / Content12Netflix, Spotify, Substack, TikTok, Discord48-79
Finance / Fintech5Stripe, Revolut, Monzo, Wise70-88
Gaming / Kids / Entertainment5Nintendo, LEGO, Tonies, Yoto38-62
Big Tech / Platforms7Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta55-74
DTC / Consumer7Gymshark, Huel, Calm, Eight Sleep, Heights60-82
Press Release

Ready to use

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MODERN RETRO COMPLETES 100-BRAND AI FILM COLLECTION
Creative project reimagines century of modern brands as 1970s retail stores, now with full cinematic film archive

LONDON, May 2026 -- Modern Retro, the AI-powered creative project that reimagines modern brands as 1970s retail stores, has completed its collection of 100 custom brand films. The films join an existing archive of 100 bespoke brand store images at modernretro.art.

Each film is a 5-10 second looping cinematic shot, generated by Luma AI from a custom brief written for each brand individually. Total production cost for all 100 films: $196.10. The collection spans 100 brands across 12 sectors, from Anthropic and OpenAI to Liquid Death, Palace, and Pudgy Penguins. All films are available to view at modernretro.art/all-videos.html.

The project was created by Mike Litman, a London-based creative strategist with 15+ years of experience at agencies including R/GA, Poke, Dare, and AnalogFolk, working with clients including Nike, Google, Netflix, Sony, and Meta. Modern Retro was built independently as an exploration of AI as a creative tool for brand mythology.

"Every brand has a founding energy that predates the product," said Litman. "I wanted to see what that energy looked like as a shop. The images that work best are the ones where something is slightly off, slightly too perfect, slightly too 1975 to be real. That uncanniness is not a bug. It is the point."

The site includes 100 individual brand store pages, a full-collection films archive, a Retro-ify Any Brand tool (powered by Flux AI), and a print-on-demand shop.

About Modern Retro
Modern Retro is a creative project by Mike Litman / Cultural Capital Labs. Live at modernretro.art.

Contact: hello@mikelitman.me

Social Copy

Pre-written, one click

Content Links

Direct links

Live Gallery
Browse all 100 brand stores
Films Archive
All 100 AI-generated cinematic films
Retro-ify Any Brand
Interactive tool: generate any brand as a 1970s store
Example Store Page
Netflix as a 1970s video rental (one of 100)
Shop
Prints, totes, mugs. Print-on-demand via Printful.
Creator Portfolio
Mike Litman: full project archive
For Journalists
Exclusive offer
We will generate a custom film for your publication's brand
Working on a piece about Modern Retro? We will generate a custom 1970s store film for your publication, newsletter, or podcast brand: exclusive to your piece. We can also provide raw prompt files, generation logs, and behind-the-scenes process notes. For data journalists: full MR Score dataset available on request. Contact hello@mikelitman.me with your brief and publication.
About

The creator

Background

Mike Litman is a London-based creative strategist and AI product builder. He has 15+ years of experience in digital creative strategy, working at agencies including R/GA, Poke, Dare, and AnalogFolk. He founded Burst, his own creative studio, before moving into independent AI product development. Modern Retro is a Cultural Capital Labs project.

Credentials

BIMA 100 Tech Pioneer. Published author (BCS, 2024). Clients have included Nike, Adidas, Google, Meta, Gucci, BMW, P&G, EA, Netflix, Sony, TikTok, McLaren, and Unilever. Modern Retro is one of 20+ live AI-native projects built independently since 2025.

hello@mikelitman.me
Responds within 24 hours. Available for interview, demos, and exclusive brand generation requests.

Modern Retro press kit. Back to gallery.