What's Your Bag, Man? Adding Retro Features To Custom Bags

In the sixties and seventies, a popular phrase and question was "That's my bag, man!" and "What's your bag, baby/man?". These off-color hippie expressions meant "What are you into/what do you like?" and "That's a major interest/passion of mine!". When it refers specifically to bags, a.k.a. satchels or sacks, it takes on double meaning. When you take these things into consideration while you are designing some retro/vintage bags for your business's fortieth- or fiftieth-anniversary, you can create custom bags like the following. 

Pop Art

When you think "pop art," you probably think Warhol and his soup cans or brightly-colored Marilyn Monroe heads. Apply this idea to modern reusable canvas or plastic bags, and you can create a similar graphic effect on your anniversary bags. The graphic artists responsible for printing your bags can show you some mock-up designs before you send them to print, allowing you to choose the one or ones you like best.

Wallflower Images

Another iconic set of images at the time when your store or business opened are the "wallflowers." These stretched whirls of popular 60's and 70's colors are interspersed with large, cartoon-like flowers. This is an easily-reproduced pattern on store bags, and it definitely gives the bags that very vintage look and feel. You can print the pattern in black and white or in classic vintage colors of burnt orange, avocado green, sunny yellow, and medium brown.

Highly Reflective Bags

Disco balls and bright lights were emerging on the party scene when your business first started. As such, another retro feature you could use to customize your bags is the use of reflective materials. If you choose canvas bags that customers can purchase once and reuse, you could imprint the bags with a disco ball image and request Bedazzle crystals or reflective paillettes. Marketing them as a anniversary bag/reusable shopping tote/reflective night bag trifecta product, you may even make a little money on the side.

Hemp Bags

Hemp, a strong, durable fiber made from male marijuana plants, may be something you want to promote. More durable than cotton canvas and completely natural, it might be the nicest custom and retro bag your business offers for consumer use and/or purchase. (Because the fibers are taken from the male plant, there is no psychoactive drug residue in the fibers either; it is pure fiber only.) Then you only have to stamp your celebratory information and business information on the bag in a permanent natural ink, and the bags are good to go.