This is an experiment I worked on in the hope it will turn out to be a usefull exercise for students of the course in Basic Design at the university of Ferrara. I believe I am the inventor of this exercise but I should do a lot more research to be 100% sure of this.  
 

 

 

 
exercise one: design a "70's style" pattern   

First step of my experiment was designing a pattern that could be easy to identify as something dating back to the 70's. 

For first year students I would definitely reccomend an insight on Verner Panton's textile designs and on 70's logo designs before they start drawing. It's important to know which drawing instruments were available at the time and understand how they influenced the style of those years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

exercise three: now start bending!
the perception of this design can now be modified adding various elements.
 

 

 

 

 

In this case I chose to enhance the 70's feel representing the pattern also as a wallpaper. I imagine this as a spark for a digression on home decoration in the 1970's, the use of patterns on textiles and tapestry.

3.2 distort the perception of the design bringing it to a contemporary feel.
Elements that can be changed are: color palette, sound track and - for the most skilled - animation.

3.3 distort the perception of the design bringing it to a "different" contemporary feel. 
Just like it should be easier for students to name many more different styles of contemporary music than they could name of 70's music, they should be able to identify many more different contemporary styles in product, graphics and animation. Here are the outcomes of my own attempt.