Who doesn’t enjoy a bit of nostalgia?
Although VHS had a ‘few’ flaws compared to modern formats, you just have to ask the slightly more mature movie watcher if they remember paying the video store a visit and watch them drift off into a flashback. There were rows upon rows of everything you could want to watch, as long as you didn’t turn up late on a Friday night and all the new releases had been rented out. I feel bad talking about VHS in the past tense but there are very few video rental stores available today and I doubt any of them would still stock anything older than a DVD. Videos had their advantages, videos remembered exactly where you left off, you could fast forward the trailers and they were almost indestructible. My kids however still enjoy a VHS or two when they visit their grandparent’s house, although a few things had to be explained… “What’s rewinding?”
So when an artist such as Off Track Outlet creates a series of VHS artwork I’m in. It would seem like no detail has been missed, the way they’re printed and the style of each layout but what really sells these retro gems are the stickers and packaging. Each case looks battered, as though it’s been tossed around a video store for years. Most of them actually contain a transferred copy of the recent movie to VHS but I don’t think I’m committed enough to sit through those.
What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments section below.
