Quote Originally Posted by madcowchef View Post
Very fun. I like how "futuristic" as an idealized form seems to have crystallized in the 80's and 30 some years later we are still associate the style strongly with the future, making it instantly recognizable.
I always figured that the '70s were the highwater point for self-consciously "modern" design of physical things(architecture, industrial design, vehicles), and that '80s green on black computer interface design(taken to it's ultimate extent in early '90s AutoCad, although that extended the paradigm to neon colors on black) was the ultimate in modernity for that field.

Contemporary design is far more backward looking. The graphics are a whole lot better, but rusty metal steampunk is hardly "modern."

I'm not saying I'm a huge fan of Disco, but ABBA pretty much still owns "modernity."